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MODERN ENGLISH.
BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
Recent Exemplifications of False Philology. Pp. 124. New York : Scribner,
Armstrong, & Co. 1872.
For opinions of the press, see the end of this volume.
In preparation.
A volume of Philological Essays, in which most of the following subjectH,
and perhaps some others, will be treated of. English Dictionaries. Modern
English in Making. The English of the Bible. Popular Etymology. English
Hybrids. Americanisms. ReUable, Dilation, and their Respective Con-
geners. Sundry Modernisms, Established and Unestablished, Lawful and
Lawless.
O^-' "-l.
MODERN ENGLISH.
BY
FITZEDWARD HALL,
M.A., HON. D.C.L. OXON.,
KORMERLY PROFESSOR OF THE SANSKRIT LANQUAOE AND LITERATURE, AND OK
INDIAN JURISPRUDENCE, IN KINO's COLLEGE, LONDON.
El rt; ^e cAey^ai, Kal irapourr^crat ftoi, ort ovk opffStq viroAa/yij3av(i> ^ vpd<r<rto, Svva-
rai, x<'^P<^*' iteTaBiqaoixau.. ZrfTw yap ttjv dA^0eiai/, v<^' ^( ovfiei$ irunore
c^Aa^1). BAairreroi Se 6 inifUviav eirt t^« eavrov airanf? ical ayvoia^. Marcv.t
Antoninus.
La materia do' libri par cosa di poco memento, perchd tratta di parole. Ma
da queste parole vengono Topinioui nel mondo, cho causano le partialitu,
lo sedlzloiie, e finalmente le guerre. Sono parole, si, mk che, in cousc-
qiienza, tirano seco esserciti armati Paolo Sarpi.
Ye know not what hurt ye do to learning, that care not for wordes, but for
matter, and so make a devorse betwixt the tong and the hai-t. Rofi» r
A»cham.
LONDON:
TRUBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.
NEW YORK :
SCEIBNER, ARMSTRONG, & CO.
1873.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by
8CRIBNER, ARMSTRONG, & CO.,
In the oflBce of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
C"^
(v
JOHN CHILDS AND SON, PKINTEKS, BUNGAY.
Eo
Jig Jlotijer.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I. LANGUAGE UNSTABLE
II. PROPRIETY IN SPEECH
III. INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY
IV. PURISM
V. NEOTERISM
VI. NEOTERISTIC CANONS
VII. OUR grandfathers' ENGLISH
VIII. MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED
PAGE
1
25
42
98
135
164
198
278
APPENDIX. ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE
ADDITIONS
INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES
321
360
369
379
PREFACE.
The contents of this volume are made up, in the
main, of selections from a large number of essays
which I have composed, within the last ten years, for
my own amusement. As to the particular chapters
here grouped together, seeing that they were written
at considerable intervals, and, as soon as written,
were laid aside and well nigh forgotten, I found, on
revising them, that, almost of course, I had, here and
there, in some measure repeated myself. After all,
however, the repetitions have seemed too slight to
demand that I should be at the trouble of removing
them ; and, accordingly, I have let them stand. For
the rest, it is not impossible, that things which have
offered themselves, at various times, as worth the
saying, may deserve that attention which they might,
if said only once, have failed to secure.
When it is announced, that the object of this dis-
quisition is to justify modem English, as well as to
exemplify it, the principle which has actuated my
division and disposition of my subject-matter will at
once become intelligible.
To assist a right judgment of language, as pre-
sented either in our own age, or in any other age, I
have thought it good, first of alls to emphasize its
abiding instability ; and, next, I have dwelt on pro-
priety in speech, as divisible into correctness and
appropriateneaa. Then follow specimens of such
erroneous conclusions as one is sure to be landed in,
from electing, in philology, assumption and ■divina-
tion, in preference to investigation and induction.
Purism and neotorism are, in course, discussed ; and
to these discussions some experimental rules are sub-
joined, which devisers of new words, if they wish
their dovisings to outlive themselves, neglect to their
cost. The two last chapters exhibit abundant exem-
plifications of English which has dropped oway, and
of English which has come into vogue, within the
last hundred years or thereabouts. In the Appendix
I have reprinted, in essentially its original form, a
paper which, written in 1871, has already appeared
in the pages of a Magazine. I will here add, touch-
ing the idiom vindicated in the Appendix, that a
very learned and ciitical neighbour of mine, a gen-
tleman now in his eighty-fifth year, assures me, that
expressions like h being bitilChave been colloquially cur-
rent in the beat English society ever since his boyhood.
It has been well observed, by an acute observer and
profound thinker of our time, that " popular opinions,
on subjects not palpable to sense, are often true, but
seldom or never the whole truth." In OA'Crwhelming
proportion, we further find, as the groundwork of hu-
man assents, unverified traditions, eked out by the sug-
gestions of greed and of whim ; and it is hardly tc
PREFACE. XI
denied, that, regarding any truth whatsoever which is
not of obvious perception in its fulness, paradoxy is like-
ly to be orthodoxy. Error, save in the exact sciences,
and in awards by the rule of thumb, has still, pretty
nearly everywhere, the ascendency; and, as concerns
the sphere of later English philology, in especial, I
have looked only to be disappointed, for a guide to it in
whom I can trust otherwise than occasionally. To no
one can any benefit accrue from such aerial specula-
tions, shallow sophisms, and self-sufficient reveries, as
crowd almost every book on our language that we
turn to. Philologists are much too apt to forget, that
their function is, chiefly, to record, and never to
legislate; and, instead of the wholesome bread of
truth, they beguile us, far too often, with the worthless
stone of their own caprice. If we choose to dissert
on English, it may, at least, be demanded of us to
beware of substituting fictions for facts, and dog-
matism for dialectic inference, and, like the frog in
the fable, of mistaking the kerb of our own little
philologic well for the far-off horizon of science. For
my own part, I have striven to build on a foundation
of due amplitude, the verities of history, a thing
totally impersonal to myself. No more than the cut
of one's coat, or the style of one's nose, have private
chimeras here any relevance ; and, except in reliance
on explicit testimony and straightforward logic, the
philologist may depend upon it, that he will never
reach any goal which he would not much better avoid.
I have thus indicated, negatively, my general mode
of procedure ; and, as best I could, I have adhered
to it.
In a work like the present, it ia unavoidflble tkat
one should not say something about usage. I do not
hold, however, as I have been charged with holding,
that "usage is the one criterion of proper speech."
The general consent of the best writers and speakers
among our contemporaries should be accepted for
our guidance in matters of syntax and idiom ; but, aa
to our choice of phraseology, whether it is to be
simple or scholastic, popular or technical, established
or neoteric, we ought, in reason, to be governed by
considerations of expedience. And then there is the
minting of new words, a direct innovation on usage,
and yet a thing which we ought not to prevent, even
if it were preventible. No one will arraign these
positions aa wanting in liberalism; but there "is,
nevertheless, nothing, in their liberalism, of lawless-
ness. The more closely one looks into usage, the
firmer must be one's conviction, that its adjudications
have greatly more of freedom and elasticity than find
countenance with the rabble of mere word- fanciers.
Solecisms apart, it is much leaa the choice of expres-
sions, than the use we put thom to, 1;hat makes true
English. My views on such points, and, indeed, on
most of the various topics handled in the following
pages, are, I know, novel, as coming from an
American. At the same time, they are those of the
majority of educated Englishmen. And this I assert
with confidence ; for my intercourse with educated
Englishmen haa, perhaps, been, as of longer duration,
80 of a more intimate character, than has fallen to
the lot of any other American who has made the
English language a subject of serious study. The
PREFACE. XIU
weight of this argument will, I ain aware, be de-
nied ; but, let Englishmen scorn us, and move our
just aversion, as they may, the fact still stands, that,
looking to their superior culture, literary and social,
we shall do wisely in deferring to their example, if
we would learn how best to speak and to write.
It occurred to me, while meditating the prepara-
tion of this volume, that it might be prudent to salute
the public with something of smaller bulk first. In
prosecution of this idea, and in the belief, that there
is no more effective way to teach sound principles
than by dissecting and exploding unsound, I picked
out a handful of material from a mass which lay
ready at my elbow, and worked it up into my Recent
Exemplifications of False Philology. But opinion,
in matters of language, is, with most people, every-
thing ; and ninety-nine in a hundred, if only once
certified, that adhesion to a given view is associated
with a name of popular weight, are quite ready to
acquiesce in it without further ado. All but univers-
ally, in truth, it is simply the prejudices and the
crotchets of persons w£o have risen to reputation,
that, by being adopted, enable vulgar minds to
escape from absolute vacancy. In the critique which
I am speaking of, regardless of anything but facts
and a scientific treatment of facts, I passed in review
a motley cluster of philologists, semi-philologists,
and entire philologasters. Abstractedly from their
avowed pretensions, the authors of the misleading
fallacies and decisions which I scrutinized, were
nothing to me. If they had written anonymously,
I should have done by them precisely as I did.
Personality, otherwise than hy way of holding up a
mirror to them, I diligently eschewed. There ia
one of their numher, however, a wholesale sponsor,
and also an originator, of superficial conceits, whose
clientry of clapper-clawers, miarepresenting the chii-
rdcter of my strictures, and fathering on me, vrith
irontless mendacity, the most preposterous prin-
ciples, have, in requital, shown themselves, as aii old
author phrases it, valiantly railipotent. Pretension
to knowledge they make none whatever; and, in
justice, I concede to them, for not making any, — ^but
for nothing else, — the credit of a ludicrous honesty.
It was, further, only to Jbe expected, that persona
capable, in their anger, of merely malting a senseless
clatter, and of comporting themselves after a wholly
unseemly fashion, should he unable to conceal the
real ground of their disquietude. Their favourite
persuasions have, without question, rei^eived a shock
of unusual severity ; and they vainlj' hope, by a de-
monstration of violence and incredulity, to piece
together their shattered illusions. I might, to be
sure, easily have afi'orded to jjass them by in silence;
and I have here spoken of them, only because of
their supplying an instructive niustration, how com-
mon it is for the sons of feebleness, immediately on
being confronted with the discomfort of new ideas,
to throw honesty to tlie winds, and to wax warm
and hysterical. By seliolars my critique has been
welcomed with great cordiality and many kind
words ; and the demand for it was so unexpected,
that, within a month after its publication, I felt en-
PREFACE. XV
couraged to put to press, without delay, the volume
now in the hand of the reader.
Almost ever since I left college, in 1846, I have
held laborious official positions, mostly in India.
For many years, while there, spending a consider-
able part of every day in the saddle, I had little
leisure for study. In fact, until four years ago, I
have rarely, since I came to man's estate, had any
hours for reading and writing, except such as would
rightfully have been given to sleep. Scant oppor-
tunity, therefore, have I enjoyed of becoming a
thorough scholar; and to thorough scholarship I
lay no claim. For all that, I have contrived, at odd
times, to run through something of divers literatures,
and to give some thought to my mother-tongue. On
not a tithe of the books I have skimmed have I taken
notes serviceable for philological purposes ; and yet
my memoranda on English words and uses of words
have grown to a matter of half a million. Hitherto,
only a small share of these has been turned to
account ; and, whether the residue of this apparatus
shall go the way of waste paper, circumstances must
determine.
Marlesfordj Wickham Market^ Suffolk,
Julf/ 15, 1873.
CORRECTIONS.
PAGE LINE OF NOTES
FOR
READ
35
9
Fletcher
Hooker [?]
88
5
Eeigne
Raigiie
137
7
Sir
the Rev.
141
13
analogous
analogue
167
25
Reigne
Raigne
176
4
Colly
Colley
182
15
mawagery
menagery
234
3
EccL Vmd.
The Hist, of Episc,
247
23
Hombeck
Homeck
265
14
LINE OF TEXT
Abbot
Abbott
330
11
Rev. Dr.
Dr.
CHAPTER I.
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE.
Mutantur in aevum
Singula, et inceptum alternat natura tenorem,
Quodque dies antiqua tulit post auferet ipsa.
Pontamis,
Not many years ago, a member of the House of
Lords, on being taken to task, by one of his august
peers, for some solecism of speech, desired to be in-
fopned whether the right could be denied him, as a
free-born Briton, of devising English of his own.
Befitting though this style of retort may be to delin-
quents of exceptional immunities, a less lofty tone is
more appropriate to ordinary transgressors. And
these, we find, when charged with verbal or gram-
matic ofience, are wont, in strict obedience to the
proprieties, to defend themselves from a humbler
vantage-ground. Much on a parity, however, with
the noble senator's self-assertive interrogatory, for
availing to foreclose every avenue to rational re-
ply, is the demand, so often advanced by practi-
tioners of anomalous words and phrases, what it is
they are speaking, if not English. But, as will
appear in the course of these pages, men of leandxv^
1
2 CHAPTER I.
and reflection, equally with mere parrots, are seen,
when discoursing on language, to deal in utterances
quite as inconsiderate or fallacious as the samples
just instanced.
Even in Cicero we meet with the strain of thought-
lessness here adverted to, where he writes: "quo
magis expurgandus est sermo, et adhibenda, tan-
quam obrussa, ratio quae mutari non potest, nee
utendum pravissima consuetudinis regula." ^ " One
great end of this undertaking is to fix the English
language," says Dr. Johnson, in his Plan of an
English Dictionary,^ Previously, Swift had had
much at heart, " that some method should be thought
on for ascertaining and fixing our language for ever,
after such alterations are made in it as shall be
thought requisite ; " and hence his Proposal for
Correctingy Improving, and Ascertaining the English
Tongue? Still earlier than the time of Swift, the
» Brutus, LXXIV.
^ Dr. Johnson, in The History of the English Language, pre-
fixed to his Dictionary y speaks of causes " which, notwithstanding
the care of writers and societies instituted to obviate them, are
even now daily making innovations in every living language."
It seems, from this, that Dr. Johnson really conceived a living
language to be capable of fixation. Nor is this the only other
place where he has given token of such a belief.
^ This Proposal was written in 1712. There we also read, with
reference to our language : " If it were once refined to a certain
standard, perhaps there might be ways found out to fix it for ever,
or, at least, till we are invaded and made a conquest [.^u?] by some
other State."
Again : " What Horace says of words' going off and perishing
like leaves, and new ones' coming in their place, is a misfortune
he laments, rather than a thing he approves."
Once more : " I see no absolute necessity why any language
should be perpetually changing ; for we find many examples to
the contrary. From Homer to Plutarch was above a thousand
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 3
Earl of Roscommon " formed the plan of a society
for refining our language, and fixing its standard." ^
To the visionaries here quoted the elementary fact,
regarding language, that irresistible mutability is
one of its invariable characteristics, can never, it
should seem, have seriously presented itself.
Expressions of satisfaction with English as already
developed, deprecations of any further alteration of
it, and lamentations over its degeneracy, may be
expected, as matters of course, from those who
believe a language to be susceptible of fixation, and
repine at the perversity which has refused to fix it.
As long ago as 1557, Sir John Cheke expressed
himself as follows :
"I am of this opinion, that our own tung shold be
written cleane and pure, unmixt and unmangeled with
borowing of other tunges, wherin if we take not heed bi
years : so long, at least, the purity of the Greek tongue may be
allowed to last ; and we know not how far before."
Swift would have found it difificult, consistently with scholar-
ship, to define " purity," as he here applies the term. His Greek,
like Shakespeare's Latin, must have been ".small ".
With an extravagance which he should have blushed even to
imagine, he tells Lord Oxford, to whom his Proposal is addressed :
" If you will not take some care to settle our language, and put it
into a state of continuance, I cannot promise that your memory
sliall be preserved above a hundred years, farther than by imper-
fect tradition."
The sound sense of an anonymous writer who commented on
the Dean's dream will be evident from the following extract.
*' The Doctor may as well set up a society to find out the Grand
Elixir, the Perpetual Motion, the Longitude, and other such dis-
coveries, as to fix our language beyond their own times. The
test of their successors will vary with the age, and their rules grow
obsolete, as well as their words." lleflections on Br, Swift's Let-
ter to tlie Earl of Oxford, &c., p. 25.
^ Dr. Johnson, Life of Boscommon,
tiim, ever borowing and never pajeng, she shall be fain to
keep her house as bankrupt. For then doth our tung
naturallie and praiaablie utter her meaning, whan she
bouraweth no conterfeitneBs of other tungea to attire her
self withall, but usetli plainlie her own, with such shift as
nature, craft, experiena, and folowing of other excellent
doth lead her unto; and, if she want, at am tiim {as,
being unperfight, she must), yet let her borow with suche
baahfulnes, that it mai appear that, if either the mould of
our own tung could serve us to fascion a woord of our
own, or if the old iJenisoned wordes could content and
ease this neede, we wold not boldly venture of unknowen
wordes." '
Much to the same purpose writes Verstegan,
■within half a century after :
" Since tie tyme of Chaucur, more Latin & French
hath bin mingled with our tomig then left out of it ; but,
of late, wee have falne to such borowing of woorda from
' Tliis is from a letter given at the end of TJw Covrtyer {ed.
16C1), tranHlnU.'d by Bir Thomas Hoby, from tlie Kalian of Coa-
tiglione.
Henri Estienne, writing in I5G6, slioira himself quite as muah
a conservative as Clieke. " Tontesfois je ne veux pas nier . . .
qoeje ne s^y oii desormais on se pourra foumir de langnage
Fcftm'Oia qui *oit mettnble partout, veu que de jour en jour les
bona mots soot descriez entre ceux [|nj, e'esooutuns pindarieer it
la nouvelle mods. barbarJEent aux oreilles de ceui: qni snivent
I'ancienne." Apolngie ponr Herndt'te (ed. 1735), Vol. 1, p. sxsix.
It is uurioua to note what words were becoming Frencli, in the
tiineof theBreat Greek lexicographer.
Of avalDgie he says : " 81 Us oreilles Francises peuveat porter
ce mot." J6irf., Vol. 1, p. xliv.
Of itratagime : " Puis qua oe mot Greo depais qoelque temps a
trouve lieu au language Francois." Hiid., Vol, 1. pp. 300, 301.
Of <tM(»(in« .' " Car il a iaia trouver des termes Donvcaux pour
la nouvelle niasclianeete." Ibii!„ Vol. 1. p. UiH,
■» iiu'un appelle nujouriiUuv s'lj/erelienc." Ihid., Vol. i,
p. 400.
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 5
Latin,^ French, and other toungs, that it had bm beyond
all stay and limit ; which albeit some of us do lyke wel,
and think our toung thereby much bettred, yet do strangers
therefore carry the farre lesse opinion thereof ; some say-
ing that it is, of it self, no language at all, but the scum of
many languages ; others, that it is most barren, and that
wee are dayly faine to borrow woords for it (as though it
yet lacked making), out of other languages, to patche it up
withall, and that, yf wee were put to repay our borrowed
speech back again to the languages that may lay claime
unto it, wee should bee left litle better then dumb, or
scarsly able to speak any thing that should bee sencible.
" For myne own parte, I hold them deceaved that think
our speech bettered by the aboundance of our dayly bor-
rowed woords ; for they, beeing of an other nature, and
not originally belonging to our language, do not, neither
can they, in our toung, beare their natural and true
deryvations ; and, therefore, as wel may we fetch woords
from the Ethiopians, or East or West Indians, "and thrust
them into our language, and baptise all by the name of
English, as those which wee dayly take from the Latin, or
languages thereon depending. And heerhence it cometh,
(as, by often experience, is found,) that, some Englishmen
discoursing together, others beeing present, and of our o^vn
nation, and that naturally speak the English toung, are
not able to understand what the others say, notwithstand-
ing they call it English that they speak." ^
* Puttenham speaks of ** corruption " of English, " occasioned
chiefly by the peevish affectation .... of clerks and scholars or
secretaries, long since." Examples of this " corruption " he in-
stances in innumerable J revocable, irrevocable, irradiation, de-
population, ** which are not naturall Normans, nor yet French,
bat altered Latines, and without any imitation at all." It seems
that he regretted " innombrable," &c. Tlie Arte of English Poe^ie
(1689), p. 89 (ed. 1811).
• A Mestitution of Decayed Intelligence^ &c. (Antwerp ed.,
1605), pp. 2(M> 205.
b CHAPTER I.
"But, doubtlesse, yf our selves pleased to use the
treasurie of our own toung, wee should as litle need to
borrow woords from any language extravagant from ours,
as any such horroweth from us; our toung, in it self,
beeing sufficient and copious enough, without this dayly
borrowing from somany, as take scorne to borrow any
from us." ^
Camden shall next be cited :
" The alteration and admiration in our tongue, as in all
others, hath been brought in by entrance of strangers, as
Danes, Normans, and others which have swarmed hither;
by traffick (for new words, as well as for new wares,
have always come in by the tyranne Time, which altereth
all under heaven) ; by use, which swayeth most, andj[hath
an absolute command in words; and by pregnant wits.
Specially since that learning, after long banishment, was
recalled in the time of King Henry the Eight, it hath
been beautified and enriched out of other good tongues,
partly by enfranchising and endenizing strange words,
partly by refining and mollifying old words, partly by im-
planting new words with artificial composition, happily
containing themselves within the bounds prescribed by
Horace. So that our tongue is (and I doubt not but hath
been) as copious, pithy, and significative as any other
tongue in Europe ; and I hope we are not yet, and shall
not hereafter, come to that which Seneca saw, in his time :
* When men's minds begin once to inure themselves to dis-
like, whatsoever is usual is disdained. They affect novelty
in speech; they recal forworn and uncuth words; they
forge new phrases ; and that which is newest is best liked :
* A Rest'itntwn^ &c., p. 206. Among Yerstegan's quaintnesses
wcQ country ship for * nationality,' /<f>r<?-«/<f^r for * ancestor,' /w/rfo
for * retrieve,' offspring for * origin,' and outlander for * foreigner.
Of these, and many more, quite likely not one was his own invention .
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 7
there is presumptuous and farre fetching of words. And
some there are that think it a grace, if their speech do
hover, and thereby hold the hearer in suspense/ You
know what followeth." ^
Bishop Sprat, having proposed the foundation of
an Academy, like that of the French, goes on to say:
" But, besides, if we observe well the English language,
we shall find that it seems, at this time, more then others,
to require some such aid to bring it to its last perfection.
The truth is, it has been, hitherto, a little too carelessly
handled, and, I think, has had less labor spent about its
polishing then it deserves. Till the time of King Henry
the Eighth, there was scarse any man regarded it, but
Chaucer ; and nothing was written, in it, which one would
be willing to read twice, but some of his poetry. But then
it began to raise it self a little, and to sound tolerably
welL And now, when men's minds are somewhat
settled, their passions allai'd, and the peace of our country
gives us the opportunity of such diversions, if some sober
and judicious men would take the whole mass of our lan-
guage into their hands, as they find it, and would set a
mark on the ill words, correct those which are to be re-
tained, admit and establish the good, and make some
emendations in the accent and grammar, I dare pronounce,
* CamderCs Memains, Sec. (ed. 1674), pp. 36, 37. No one but a
countryman of Camden's could have added : " And not long since,
for the honour of our native tongue, Henry Fitz-Allen, Earl of
Arundel, in his travaile into Italy, and the Lord William Howard,
of Effingham, in his government of Calice, albeit they were not
ignorant of other forraine tongues, would answer no strangers, by
word or writing, but onely in English ; as, in this consideration,
also, before them, Cardinal Wolsey, in his ambassage into France,
commanded all his servants to- use no French, but meer English,
to the French, in all communication whatsoever."
For what is here said of the Earl of Arundel, also see Putten-
ham, Tlie Arte of English Poesie, p. 227.
which its derivation from tho
much plenty as
lothness
■gh German will aUow it." '
No less rash than others is Dr. Eentley, writing in
1697:
"As for our English tongue, the great alterations it has
undergone in the two last centuries are principally owing
to that vast stock of Latin words which we have trana-
plauted into our own soil ; wlu::h heing, now, in a nian-
exhanstod, one may easily presage that it will not
have such changes in the two next centuries. Kay, it
were no diihcult contrivance, if the public liod any reganl
to it, to make the English tongue immutahle, unless here-
after some foreign nation shall invade a:
The Hittory oftlie Bmjal Saciety, &c. (eil. 16G7), pp. 11, 42.
This is one at the few liooks which ealection of fit<ntimont and
elegance of diction havo been able to preserve, though written
npon a eubjcct flux and transitory. The HUtery iff the Sni/al
Saci-i'ty IB now read, not with the wish to know what they wera
then doing, but how their transactiotia are exhibited by t-prat."
So Bay!> Dr. Johnson. The decorous debility of Sprat is much
ore juHtly appreciated by Godwin. " Though Sprat was the tirst
!taporter of neatness into his native tongue, yet he bits a singular
air of feebleness. His composilion reminds the render of the »p-
of au old man he may have seen, who, though dressed
with care aodspruaeoeBS, yet has something strangely old^fssliiouT^d
' his air, and irabecil in his motions." 3^* Eitgiitrvr, p. 4aB.
Godwin's saying of Sprat, — "our English Cicero," in the
timatlonof Bentley, — that he originated "neatness" of Engliah,
as bad as what Sprat saya of our old literature.
Tliough, quite via much as Cowley, a atndiouB conservative in his
iraseology, Sprat, espeoially towatils the end of bis UittoTy of the
ml Sneiety. veulurea on some vwy odd upellings. Many of hia
ODtemporaries write, like him, ditenrage, hitrgit, hery, mnny,
uij/Aber. pVile, lavior, t/u<ater, troKeled, Ice, ka. ; but he is rather
leculiar in his averuon to the final a mute, whence his ap/>lavt,
trm^ot, atpert, avert, bacaiit, cimrg, deiolat, dlicaiiyt, eicamin,
tncreaii, mederat, bib, propagat, raU. trii.
' The Worh itf RUhard B<:nnt<j, D.D. (ed. It«v. Alux
lycc). Vol. 2, p. 13.
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. \)
Let US now listen to Dr. Johnson :
" Of antiquated or obsolete words, none will be inserted
but such as are to be found in authors who wrote [sic]
since the accession of Elizabeth, from which we date the
golden age of our language." ^
" I have fixed Sidney's work for the boundary beyond
which I make few excursions. From the authors which
rose in the time of Elizabeth a speech might be formed
adequate to all the purposes of use and elegance." ^
" So far have I been from any care to grace my pages
with modem decorations, that I have studiously endea-
voured to collect examples and authorities from the writers
before the Restoration,^ whose works I regard as the
* wells of English undefiled ',^ as the pure sources of gen-
uine diction." *
Bentley strangely asserts, that " the orthography, or way of
spelling," " is the principal variation of the modern English from
the old." lbid.y Vol. 2, p. 7.
The English here referred to as " old " must be that of very
moderate antiquity indeed.
* The Plan of an Englinh Dictionary, As, however, Johnson
declares, in his Preface to Shakespeare^ that, in Shakespeare's time,
" the English nation .... was yet struggling to emerge from bar-
barity," it seems that he considered the excellence of a language as
having very little dependence on civilization.
' Dictionary^ Preface.
' Without much trouble, I could show that Johnson should have
referred to an earlier date than 1660 — in some cases, by a whole
century, — a full thousand words and senses of words which he
illustrates solely out of writings subsequent to that era. The truth
18, that his acquaintance with pre-Restoration, and especially
with Elizabethan, authors was of the most meagre.
* We have seen what Johnson says of Sprat, whom he also calls
'* an author whose pregnancy of imagination and elegance of lan-
guage have deservedly set him high in the ranks of literature ".
He pronounces, too, that " whoever wishes to attain an English
style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious,
must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison."
In the former, with his sterile wit and nerveless insipidity, there
is nothing to remind one either of his predecessors or even of his
contemporaries ; and the latter, while notably diftlm^xiY^^^ ^& ^
s [Note in next paffe. 7
In the Coniiomeur, No. 71, by Colman aud Thorii-
I ton, wo read ;
"TheEngUali language is sufficiently copious and ex-
' pressire, without any iartlier adoption of new terms ; and
Btyliat, tor ease, a quality not to bo imitated, combinea mitli it the
extreme of inexactness, and, more particulnrlf, is allogetbec anU-
arobaio. As it oocuireil to Godwin, Jobnson, in awarding; the
praise he gives these writers, enntradictB his position which limits
the "wells of English undefiled" to the century preceding the re-
call of tbe second Charles.
By the may, the aulojo' bestowed on Chaucer by Spenser's well-
worn metaphor has not been ignite uoaninioiisly reco^ized as con-
dign. Thomas Jordan, for instaace, makes his Wildblood ejaoa-
late:
" By the wanton memory of Chaucer, I could tiitn poet.
And write in as heatheu English, and as bawdy."
The Waiht nf hUngten and Hogndon (1657), Act i, Sd. 1,
' DieitBHary, Preface. A hundred and two years elapsed be-
tween the accession of Elizabeth and the Restoration ; and " the
pure sources of genuine diction" — as if "genuine diction" could
have sources other than "pure," — are, thus, restricted to about
Ihree generations. Could thomoodynnd narrow melancholiat ever
liave asked himself what proportion of his own diution was, by his
own canon, spurious?
Swift, in Ilia Propatal, allows a shorter reign (o sterling English,
by eighteen years, than Johnson. " The period wherein the Eng-
' lisli tongue received most Improvement I take to commenee with
the beginning of Queen Eliiabetli'ii reign, and to conclude with
, the Great Itebeltion of forty-two."
Further on, he says ; '* From the Civil War to this present time
{ITI2], lam apt to doubt whether tbe corruptions in our language
have not at least equalled the reSoements of it ; and these cormp-
:tions very few of the best authors in ouragehave wholly escaped."
" Some of the causes of the predilection of Swift and Johnson
ft)r the age of Queen Elizaheth are obvious. It is well known in
rwhat terms of acrimony and personal hatred Swift attacked Dry-
den aud soma of tbe most eminent writers of Cbnrlvs's rei^n.
'Johnson's partiality for old English manners and practices was
unbounded i nor can there be produced, from the annals of our
literature, a more fervent anti-whig and anU-gallican. But, even
[ if we oould succeed in setting aside these (wo illustrious men, as
inoompeteot witnesses, we sliould still meet with a boat of critics
adhering to a similar opinion.
" The practice, however, of Swift and Johnson wns better than
Ibeir preoepta It may Iw affirmed, partiouhirly of the hitter, that
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 11
the native words seem to me to have far more force than
any foreign auxiliaries, however pompously ushered in :
as British soldiers fight our battles better than the troops
taken into our pay."
Dr. Priestley, in 1761, was content with our lan-
guage as he found it ; and he expected it to continue
pretty much as it was then :
" If the English language hath not already attained to
its maturity, we may safely pronounce that it never will ;
and, if it be not now in a condition to perpetuate itself,
and stand the attacks of time, no method that we can at
this day take will rescue it from oblivion.
" More than a century is already elapsed since Dryden
began to be admired as a writer ; and where is the pro-
bability of the prophecy of Mr. Pope ever coming to pass,
* And such as Chaucer is shall Dryden be ' ?
" It is -svriting that fixes and gives stability to a lan-
guage ; for hardly any of the causes that contribute to the
revolutions of vocal language do at all affect that which is
written. And, when a language is so much read, written,
and diffused in books through the bulk of the nation that
there is not, perhaps, a single modem writer, admired for his ele-
gance of composition, who has less * made our ancient volumes the
ground- work of his style ', than this author. " Godwin, The En-
qnirer^ p. 379.
Going to the opposite extreme, as compared with Swift and
Johnson, Godwin depreciates our older writers most unjustly. " It
is sufficiently evident," he writes, with advertence to the days of
Queen Elizabeth, "that our language, at that time, comparatively
lay in a sort of chaos, and that no just notions were yet formed of
simplicity in diction, or precision of utterance, much less, of the
arrangement of clauses, and construction of a period. The best
authors wander at random, with no better compass to steer by than
each man's private and particular hypothesis and conception.
Nay, they are worse than this ; for nothing is more evident than
each man*s uncertainty, and inconsistency with himself." Ihid.^
pp. 400, 401.
CHAPTllB I.
s it, as the English in. its present state, it would be
[absolutely miraculous, were it to receive any considerable
f- alteration." '
Good English was, however, ahout a hundred
I. years ago, in a rapid decline, on the authority of the
[ learned Miss Carter :
" You and I, my dear friend, have lived to see the
rauslirooni growth of a new language, in our own country,
filled with phrasea which nobody could have understood,
when we were young," ^
An anonymoua Tory wrote, in 1827 :
"We'are inclined to consider the Englieli language as
Hiaving attained that fulness of maturity which leayes no
f wish for increase, but only anxiety for preservation.'
' Tlie Jtudimentt vf Eagli»h Gramviar, &o. (ed. 1836), pp.
180, *90.
» Letter! to Mri. Montagu (ed. 1817), Vol. 3, p. 95. The pasE-
t»S6 quoted was written in ITT8.
^ The escellent and learned Miss Carter I generally have much
[jleBsure in quoting. Her language, for the most part, is very
; but here is an exception. " Your deeuription of his si-p-
imgetinKil [read >cptiuig(<itariatt\ gailautry would make one
igh," &0. IbU., Vol. 3, p. 145.
* In ttsiinilar spirit wrilfiB M. Fraocia Wey, regarding French ;
"Xl'tge oil ta littfrotura frani^iee eat ai^ourd'bui parveoue, il
'~^t £Cre possible a Tecrivain de pelndre toutes les nuanceH de sa
]Be« sans Bortir du vocabulair« consacre. Lo langage qui con-
nt Bu si^le present, i *t» institutions renouvelces, aui trana-
formatioDS de bb littvratore, doit ftre form^. Le Douvenu regime
it qnadragenaire. A cet fige, oq oe balbutie plus ; aa e^t 1u oom
[^es oliOMB." Remarguet twr la Langv* Fran^aiu, &c, (184o),
1, pp. 173, 17*.
^in : " Un idiome aiisai tnilr que le n6tie eat il la bauteur de
■M les idfes." Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 1+0.
Thie last remorlt can never he true of a language, until thought
It bet^ome incapable of further modification.
And, long ago, Vaugelas wrote : " Qiiaod una longue a nnmbre
it cadence en ses periodea, comiiic la langue fran^aiiie I'a maiole-
t, etie est en aa perfection ; et, ctant venue i ce point, on en
t donner dea rejjies oectainea qui dureroot toi^ours." Quoted
LANGUAGE UNSl'ABLE. 13
'* Much has been already done to fix the English lan-
guage ; and complete fixity is, now, all that it requires." ^
Even Lord Macaulay could cant ^ about " the old
unpolluted English language ", and " how rich that
language is in its own proper wealth, and how little
it has been improved by all that it has borrowed/'
The wailing of the fastidious and capricious Landor
is of the most doleful :
" Our own language had, under the translators of the
Bible and of the Liturgy, reached the spne pitch as the
Latin had In the time of Plautus ; and the sanctitude of
by M. Laveaux, in his Dictionnaire Baisonniy &c. (ed. 1822), Vol.
2, p. 601.
» The Quarterly Review, Vol. 35 (1827), pp. 407 and 405.
' In his Essay on The Pilgrim's Progress, However, in a man
who, having lived beyond the middle of the nineteenth centurj^
could yet die a Whig, one should be prepared for adhesion to any
mouldy superstition whatsoever. " Sir, he abandoned no policy,
no principles ; His Lordship is a Whig ; these Whigs have neither:
protestations serve instead.'' Landor, TIce Last Fruit off an Old
Tree, p. 59.
Lord Macaulay, with his " old unpolluted English language," is
fantastic enough ; but Horace Walpole goes very much beyond
him. After doing execution on " Danes, Saxons, and Popes ", for
the harm which they wrought to our ancestors politicjilly, he con-
tinues : " Our language suffered as much as our government, and,
not having acquired much from our Roman masters, was miser-
ably disfigured by the subsequent invaders. The unconquered
parts of the island retained some purity and some precision. The
Welsh and Erse tongues wanted not harmony ; but never did
exist a more barbarous jargon than the dialect still venerated by
antiquaries, and called Saxon. It was so uncouth, so inflexible to
all composition, that the monks, retaining the idiom, were reduced
to write in what they took or meant for Latin, llie Norman
tyranny succeeded, and gave this Babel of savage sounds a wrench
towards their own language," &c. &c. Historic Doubts, &c. (ed.
1768), Preface, p. 10.
Why did Walpole stop wh(?re he did, instead of receding a
thousand or two years further, to find his dream of a pure language
realized ?
14 CHAPTER I.
Milton's genius gave it support, until the worst of French
invasions overthrew it." ^
" The Latin language, in the time of Catullus, was
nearly in the same state as the English in the time of Mil-
ton. Each had attained its full perfection ; and yet the
vestiges of antiquity were preserved in each." ^
" Our language was first corrupted by the euphuists : it
had reached perfection under the compilers of our Church-
service. It fell prostrate in the slipperiness and filth
about Charles II., when every gentleman wisht it to be
thought that he had been an exile, for his adherence to
royalty, so long as to have forgotten his mother- tongue.
Cowley, and Dryden, and South himself, were rudely
slovenly. The sublime sanctity of Milton was as pure in
utterance as in thought : he never was seized by the
private influenza ; he never went into places where it
could be caught."^
> WWJis, Vol. 1, p. 153.
2 T/ie Last Fruit off an Old Tree^ p. 251. In*econcilably with
this, Landor elsewhere dates the decadence of our language from a
period prior even to the birth of Milton. " We ought never to
have deviated from those who delivered to us our Litany, of which
the purity is unapproachable, and the harmony complete. Our
tongue has been drooping ever since." Woi'lts, Vol. 2, p. 100.
Swift, casting his eyes across the Channel, found things there
as deplorable as Landor found them at home. " The French [lan-
guage], for these last fifty years, has been polishing as much as it
will bear, and appears to be declining by the natural inconstancy
of that people," &c. A Proposal, &c.
Part of this was, probably, borrowed, by Swift, from his patron.
Sir William Temple, who had written : ** The French wits have,
for this last age, been, in a manner, wholly turned to the refine-
ment of their language, and, indeed, with such success, that it can
hardly be excelled, and runs equally through their verse and their
prose." Miscellanea (ed. 169G), Part 2, p. 355.
^ Walter Savage Landor, a Bwgraphy, Vol. 2, p. 543. What
can Landor have known of Cowley and South ?
Ben Joiison recognized the ne plus ultra of English in an author
who has very little in common with the Church-service, Bacon,
to-wit, of whom he says, that he '' hath filled up all numbers, and
LAN<5UAGE UNSTABLE. 15
"Our language is bruised, as it were, and swollen by
the Latin; but it is contaminated, enervated, and dis-
torted by the French. If we are to borrow, let us borrow
from the principal, and not from the underlings; but,
with a little good managemeht, I think we are quite rich
enough." ^
performed that, in our tongue, which may be compared or pre-
ferred either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome. In short,
■within his view, and about his times, were all the wits born, that
could honour a language or help study. Now things daily fall,
wits grow downward, and eloquence grows backward ; so that he
may be named, and stand as, the mark and aKntj of our language."
Timber, Scriptonim Cataloffiis.
This heavy conservative, though despondent as to the future,
differed from the ruck of his fellow-pessimists, in not throwing
back the golden age into remote antiquity. He was even con-
temporary with its latter days. That he resisted innovation was
only doing after his kind. His judgment of Spenser, for instance,
is, that he, '* in affecting the ancients, writ no language ; yet I would
have him read for his matter, but as Virgil read Ennius." Ibid.j
PrcBc'qnendl Modi.
Having in reference the times which produced our Bible and
Prayer- Book, Swift says ; " I doubt whether the alterations since
introduced have added much to the beauty or strength of the
English tongue, though they have taken off a great deal from that
simplicity which is one of the greatest perfections of any lan-
guage." Proposalj &c.
1 Walter Savage Landor, a Biography y Vol. 1, p. 162. This
passage is from a letter to Dr. Parr, in 1801.
Surely, Dr. Johnson, as both his precepts and his practice bear
witness, would never have said what is feigned for him in the
subjoined extract.
*^ Johnson. If we begin to reinstate old words, we shall finish
by admitting new ones.
" Toflhe. There would be the less danger of that, as there would
be the less need. Yet even new words may be introduced with
good effect, and, particularl)^ when the subject is ludicrous."
Landor, Works, Vol. 1, p. 205.
And would Johnson, or any other first-rate writer of his age,
have put " finish by," for " end with " ?
Henri Estienne actually held, regarding the function of new
words, such views as we find imputed to Home Tooke.
*' II est bien vray que j'ay moymesme use d'aucuns mots nou-
veaux en ce livre ; mais 9'a este ou les viells defailloyent ; et puis
16 CHAPTER I.
" We are sapt by an influx of putridity." ^
"Our language is running downhill without a drag-
chain." 2
Our received translatioii of the Bible, to allege
one more eulogy on it, is, in the words of Dr. New-
man :
" a work which, by the purity of its diction, and the
strength and harmony of its style, has deservedly become
the very model of good English, and the standard of the
language to all future times." ^
There could be no better illustration than is af-
forded by some of the extracts here given, of the
despotic prejudices of association of ideas, and of the
ease with which veneration for what is substantive
comes to be extended to what is adjective. With
respect to loyalty, if we may believe Mr. Thackeray,*
the process is precisely the reverse ; reverence there
having, to begin with, magnificent coats and gorgeous
brej/eches for its object, and, in the end, the august
person of Majesty. To Dr. Newman, and to the
myriads who think as he does about our English
Bible, one would be allowed to whisper, that the poor
lis sont tels qu'on voit bien que je les ay forgez a plaisir, pour
parler ridiculement des choses ridicules, qui neantmoins par les
povres abusez sont estiraees fort serieuses." Apologie pour Hc-
rodote, Vol. 1, pp. xxxix., xl.
' T/ie La»t Fruit off an Old Tree, p. 97.
* Walter Savage Landor^ a Bxograjpliy^ Vol. 2, p. 526.
' Lectures on the Present Position of Catholl^is ifi England^ p.
66. But it would be unjust to judge Dr. Newman by a single sally
of irreflection. In a coming chapter, I shall quote something on
the English language, from the pen of this most admirable
writer, very much more rational than the passage transcribed
above.
* See his Paris Sketch-book, Meditations at Versailles,
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 17
" Turks " of the Prayer-Book talk exactly in their
own fashion, and for reasons strictly analogous to
theirs, about the purity of diction, and what not, of
" the Blessed Koran." The prevailing speech of any
age is the speech called forth by, and best suited to,
its peculiar requirements ;^ and, in especial, ever since
the Reformation, the ruling language of English re-
ligion has been, with rare exceptious, an afiair either
of studied antiquarianism or of nauseous pedantry.
Simplicity, and little more, was aimed at, originally ;
and it sufficed for times of real earnestness. But
the very quaintness of phrase which King James
countersigned has attained to be canonized, till a
hath^ or a thou, delivered with conventional unction,
now well nigh inspires a sensation of solemnity in
its hearer, and a persuasion of the sanctanimity of
its utterer. To return to Landor, Lord Macaulay,
and Dr. Newman, who can doubt that an Imaginary
Conversation, moulded, as to its English, on the " per-
fection " reached in the Church-service, would have
exhibited its author crippled to something like the
inefficiency of Sir Edward Creasy or Sir Arthur
Helps; that an Essay for the Edinburgh Heview,
in "the old unpolluted English language," would
have been consigned, by the editor, to his balaam-
basket; or that an Apologia, of such "purity of
* " I believe that whoever knows the English tongue in its pre-
sent extent will be able to express his thoughts without farther
help from other nations." Johnson, The Ramhler, No. 208.
To Johnson this was not a platitude. As he viewed things,
mankind, besides being in a state of retrogression, had nothing
more to learn, and was best employed, provided it had grace left for
such employment, in going over the lessons of the pa&t.
2
118 CHAPTER I,
diction and strength of stylo " as wc see in our Bible,
would remind us of Dean Milman in his Latin
Chrhiianitij, and would not remind us of Cobbett ?
Sense and logic, in the laudator t^mporis acti, are
fatally liable to get charmed into dire confusion.
However, till chronology gets equally confounded,
and we take to writing for antiquity, we need not
distress ourselves because of knowing more words
and phrases than our excellent forefathers.
" Primus sapientije gradus eat falsa inteUigere ;
secundus, vera cognoscere," says Lactantius ; and
the reader must have been fiufficiently stifled by the
choke-damp of folly, to long for emergence into a
more wholesome atmosphere.
The phrase 'living language,' used with reference
to facts, must import perpetual excretion and accre-
tion of substance, involving or producing assimila-
tion, development, and renewal. No nearer, in the
■nineteenth century, is English to being a finality
than it has been in any previous century ; and not
even the complete isolation of all the English-speak-
ing peoples, and that seconded by a rigour of despotism
nndreumt of by very positivists, could avail to give it
a definitive form. Countless influences have hitherto
contributed to its alteration from age to age, and v
always contribute to the same result. As little rea^
liavo we to conceit ourselves that our progeny i«
satisfied with our English, as the subjects of tlie
Heptarchy would have had for conceiting thoin-
BolvoB that their Saxon would supply the necessities
of us their descendants. The prejudices of (
puristB would have been just as defensible in (
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 19
former age as they are now ; and, if tliey had been
operatively entertained early enough, and widely
enough^ we should now be talking in monosyllables,
and ekino^ out our scantiness of vocalism by nods,
shrugs, winks, and other resources of pantomime.
A painful compromise, truly, should we have had
between the gold of silence and the silver of proper
speech. The gold being relinquished for the use of
the gods' an^ the commendation of Mr. Carlyle,^ we
may be thankful that we are no worse off than as
possessing the silver. It may be that what we have,
in the way of mother-tongue, is rather a chaos ; but
then it is a chaos which comprehends the germs of
an approximate cosmos. Already we are much better
off than we once were. In bygone days, there was
too much of a style of writing which would not have
been materially different, if Englishmen had been
under oath to make, each independently, tlieir own
English ; and this style is not yet extinct, though it
is something that it now has but few admirers.
Neotcrisms ^ we must have, however, to the end of
* It is not easy for me to write, without a strong sense of loath-
ing, the name of this acrid fantast, and idolizcr of brute force, —
at best, a bad copy of all that is most objectionable in Hobbos.
The word international, introduced by the immortal Bentham,
and Mr. Carlyle's glgmaniti/, — to coin which, by the way, it was
necessary to invent facts, — are significantly characteristic of the
utilitarian philanthropist and of the futilitarian misanthropist,
respectively.
* Siste, lector ! — to imitate the invitation on old tomb-stones.
And let no one be minded, on the score of my neoterism, to hore-
ticate me, as threatening to abet some new-fangled form of religi-
ous heterodoxy. Jupiter forbid that I should think of setting up as
a theologue. It is just because I would not be confounded with
the patrons of neologhvi or neology, that I prefer to use neoterism
and it8 conjugates. If human affairs were ra\ed \)y i^xwiivixvvi^, >iJsi<^
20
tirae ; and — susih are human imitativeness and ignor-
ance, — the bad are likely to be pati'onized, by tlie
ihou gilt leas, at least for a season, quile us r<?udily as
the good. Let it, therefore, be remembered, if one
would innovate on our oi'dinary speech, that every
man who blackens paper may help or may hinder its
improvement. Aright or amiss, we cannot bat move
" No author ", justly observes Southey, " ever
shackled himself by more absurd restrictions, — not
even the lipogrammatists, or those who built altars
« would be strictly neiitrdl ; hut, in oommoH nsage,
OS BeDtham juatly reniHrkB, thereby " expi'ession is given to the
Bentimenl of disple^are." JVeoiei'Um, ns being n voonble stilt
I nnfamiliiir, pMaeases the wlvaata«a of indifference, in not BU(jgest-
I inji eitiier praiae or dispraiae. That it preventB tho distraotion of
I mind, and provooation of prgudice, induced by nmlvgiiiiH or
\ ntolaj!/. with its theological association!!, and those associations
L prfigiiunt with popular repugnance, should, however, alone In
[ enough to recommend It far adoption. And yet, even if It were to
f win aeosptanoe for a while, it would bfl a marvel, if it ultimately
CMuppd the fate of inaovatwn, and were not diigrnded go as to
) be ainislerly siiggestive. lo order to allow the like of such good
I fortune the world must first make moat remarkable progress in
I the direction of energy and consequent unselflshneea.
mforta and conreniencex we are prone to consider as in-
I oorapntible with any ealabliahments but tho^e under the prevalence
I of whioh wa eryoy them ; and. as wo an) not sure that change,
I however it might benefit others, would benefit oursclvei, wp ton-
} tend for the contionance of things as they are. In other wordx,
innovation, even in idea, as not being demonstrably tor our own
' " "_ 3 be rejected. I speak, here, for
almost all thoiie, their minions and upholders included, who have,
in past ages, regulated the thraldom of our speoles, and who still
regulate it. The miaerubla thing called conservatism, for all it«
hypocritical appeals to the wisdom of oar anceslois, and it» other
l- chicaneries and anbturfuges, is thtis eviooed ia havu sordid nnd
L I»iartleaa selSsbness, the foul oflepring of sloth, for it£ sole fouud-
I otiou. As to language, a prepossession for that to which wa are
[ accustomed, and which we have somehow coalrived to make
f needs, groundwl on impatience of thinking, will
b amply nccount for the aversioo fi'lt, liy the majority of men, to
IS deviatiou from its stereotyped forms.
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 21
and hatched eggs in verse, — ^than Mr. Fox, when he
resolved to use no other words, in his History , than
were to be found in Dryden.^ The vocabulary of a
living language never can be limited. New words
will frequently be set afloat ; ^ and, if they are struck
1 Sir James Mackintosh, also, esteemed Dryden as " the highest
authority, in a case of diction, of any single English writer."
Miscellaneous WorJis (one- vol. ed., 1851), p. 508, foot-note.
' Southey, from the very first, was a prolific word-coiner ; and
many of his coinages are most felicitous, notwithstanding Cole-
ridge's savage equation : " Southey 's English, i. e., no English at
all." Odds and Ends, No. 19, p. 16.
Sir Walter Scott, in his critique on Southey's Chronicle of the
Cid, thus touches, and not very wisely, on the translator's alleged
passion for odd expressions : " We dare not proceed too far in
these censures, because Mr. Southey has informed us, that review-
ers, in censuring his introduction of new words, have only shown
their own ignorance of the English language. Despite of this ' re-
tort churlish ', however, we must say, that, if a word be so old that
it has become new again, it is unfit, at least generally speaking, for
modern use. We have a title to expect payment in the current
coin of the day, and may except against that which bears the
effigies *of King Cnut, as justly as if it had been struck by Mr.
Southey himself." The Quarterly lieview, Vol. 1 (1809), p. 153.
In TJte Doctor, Southey gives himself free scope, as a verbarian,
much after the way of Rabelais, Thomas Nash, Taylor the Water-
l)oet, or Feltham. These are a few of his ventures there : agatho-
ItakoUtgical, alamodality^ aJiywhereness, hihllogony, cacodemonize,
calvinisticate^ circujnamhagiovs, rormjication, crab-grade, v. n.,
crazyologlst, criticMn, detidr anthropology, disrecommendation,
domestlcize, errabimd, etcceterarist, everywhereness, facsimileshlpy
felisophy, ferricorons, gelastics, gignitioe, hearthstead, herbarlsm,
hippogony, hoplarchy, humorology, iatrarchy, idolify, insomno'
lence, kittenshlp, magnisonant, minify, rtwttocrat, nepotiotis, obit-
uarist, omni-ertidite, omnisignlficance, oxnianship, parenthesize,
pdulopostfuturatively, pentametrize, personijicator, philofelist,
philotheist, qnasically, quinteUment, quizzify, quotatiompotent,
resemblant, semiramize, shai'ee, shillisluillier, stelliscript, stock-
inger, tlieologo -jurist, threnodial, tnmestral, typarchlcal, vgly*
ographize, unegofy, unipsefy, uuparallelable, unprosperity, vto-
pianizer, whiskerandoed, zoophilist.
But, even in the pages of the Quarterly Review, he allowed
himself in such terms, some of them very good ones, as abolish-
ment, admonishment, anapaganize, anthro/wpJiagistic^ anticipants
22 CHAPTER 1.
in the mint of analogy, if the standard be lawful,
and the die be good, they must become current coin." ^
Established usage in language is, then, a thing
for which philosophy feels no very awful rever-
ence. Far indeed is it from invariably repre-
senting the fruit of investigation and reflection.
Fashioned by their direction, it would be organic and
symmetrical; whereas we see it to be, not unfre-
quently, reckless and defiant, in fickle alternation,
even of everything like method or analogy. Discord-
ant and independent causes, inharmonious forces, act-
ing simultaneously, and usually in competition, must
needs have incongruities and compromises as their
hatracophagouR^ hastillionj iattology, hrutallsm., carnificatUm,
celestiallze^ comicocratic, conflagratory^ coamocratie, cosmograph-
ist, criticaster, deharliation^ delegation, denndevient, destperating,
dcvilet, devotement, diaholocracy, disaccomvwdate, doiiivorovSy
eqvalitarian, evangel Izationer, exercitation, exvte^fizzgig, focci-
naucipilification, jloccinavcity, fr actionize, grandiloqvovs, great-
ening, hvmgig, ilUteratnre, incarnadine, inconimiscihle, insltiti-
ous, mac radicalized, malignified, metapoUtician, meta politics^ mil-
lianist^ novitial, orate, perfectionate^ perfectionment, possihilltate,
proposant^ pnlpiteer, religioner, resolutUmer, saccage, seditio?iist^
sinistrons, apingfership, »uhalternity^ supersaturate, tarriance^
taverner, tJieomisanthropist, unexaggerahle, 'uniting, vnsn'eet,
ventiduct.
Southey, in his Colloquies, the best-written and the silliest of all
his prose- works, has antometry, hahhlatlve, dispatliy,foliophagouSy
hagi-heroical, intellectuallze, mismeter, nugacious, olfactor, pro-
ditoriovs^ scrihhlative, speecliification, torpify. His letters con-
tain oddities of expression to the amount of several hundred.
Many of his strange wonls, however, are old.
^ Essays, Moral and Political, Vol. 1, p. 296. The passage which
I cite had previously appeared in the Quarterly Review, Vol. 15
(1816), p. 561.
Dr. Johnson is reported to have said : " New words are well-
earned riches. When a nation enlarges its stock of knowledge,
and acquires new ideas, it mnst necessarily have a suitable vesture
for them." Tlie Manthly Magazine, Vol.' 9 (1800), p. 150.
LANGUAGE UNSTABLE. 23
resultants ; and of such is language constituted. To
take English, there was, first, a prolonged rivalry
between its Latin and Anglo-Saxon elements, issuing
in a temper between the two. The scholastic pre-
dilections of the literate were mitigated by the per-
sistent conservatism of the populace, who, in turn,
became measurably habituated, by slow degrees, to
the clerkly phraseology of their superiors. And then
there were the influences of commerce, of travel, of
fashion, and of euphuism, each of which has left its
contingent of indelible foot-prints on our speech.
Again, and more especially, dating its beginnings
about a hundred years back, a consciousness of pos-
sessing human rights has gradually come, under
philanthropic inspiration, to be a fixed conviction
of the commonalty, till then treated as slaves and
helots, and taught and believing that they lived only
to obey. From this consciousness there has grown,
in them, an ever-increasing dissatisfaction with ignor-
ance ; many of them have been schooled to think,
and to express their thoughts ; and a language ex-
pands in proportion to the number of those who use
it like thoroughly rational beings. With the difi'u-
sion of education, solid and superficial, the practice
of composition has, of late, increased to limits unpre-
cedented in the world^s history. By inevitable con-
sequence, too many, by far, who are but barely
qualified to read books to any genuine profit, mis-
taking their vocation, undertake to write them. Yet
the result, though repulsive enough, is not in the
least serious. Penny-a-liners and suchlike parcel-
learned adventurers have had their fellows in every
24 LANGUAGE UNSTABLE.
age ; but no known language has ever suffered from
their escapades perceptibly, Shakespeare alone has
immortalized ten times more solecisms, — and yet
without inducing imitation, to the harm of English,
— ^than all the sciolists of the nineteenth century will
contrive to bequeath to posterity.
CHAPTEUl II.
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH.
Tb KaXoJQ Ixov rrov KptXrrov itm Kal vofiov.
Menander,
In nothing are most people at once more heedless
and more peremptory than in their, decisions as to
what is English, or good English, and what is not.^
* A few illustrations, before I go further, may not be amiss.
And they shall be taken from Mr. Charles Reade, whose satisfac-
tion with his own English Is so well known to all his readers.
" He don't hinder you to sell yours. Why hinder the poor man
to sell his? " The Eighth Commandment^ p. 115.
"One fine afternoon, everybody was on deck, amusing theni^
selves as tliey could." Hard Cash (ed. 1863), Vol. 1, p. 308.
" To while away the time, he got his file of the Times, and
amused himself noting down the fluctuations of Peruvian bonds."
IHd., Vol. 2, p. 265.
"That is no excuse for him beating you." IMd., Vol. 2,
p. 332.
"The writers aforesaid suppress small intermediate matters
which, in real life, come, by the score, between each brilliant
event, &c." Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 224.
« Ah, it is her you love." Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 227.
" Not hut what employment was often bobbed before his eyes ;
but there was no grasping it." Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 22.
"Who but lie , , , admired Aileen Aroon?" Ibid., Vol. 3,
p. 112.
And who will be so bold as to admit such a collocation as
" with him giving ", for * since he gave ', to be vernacular ?
" With him giving her his hand almost at the same moment,
she pressed it," &c. Griffith Gaimt (ed. 1866), Vol. 1, p. 207.
"I*d have slept, too, if I could ; but, with me going to chapel,
I 'm not used to sleep at that time o' day." Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 56.
" So, with me hearing * Mercy, Mercy,' called out after me so
many years, I do think the quality hath somehow got under my
Bkin." Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 254.
26 CHAPTER II.
The accepted criterion of the allowableness of an ex-
pression is its currency in good usage ; and a man
who thinks himself educated is seldom willing to
admit that he has not read enough, and that with
care and retention enough, to authorize his adjudi-
cating on so very simple a question of fact, whenever
it arises. Touching such a matter, not unlike Vol-
taire's Grand Lama, " il a une plaisante manie ; il se
croit toujours avoir raison.'' But, after all, omni-
science is not a common endowment ; intuition is not
always demonstration ; memory is a treacherous sup-
port; and individual taste is sometimes mistaken,
or substituted, for cultured consensus. I well know
that the infallibilists, a very numerous body, prac-
tically deem quite otherwise, each for himself; and
Nor can one admire expressions like commotisenseadox, dis-
clamatory ^ facticide, f unity , peachify^ picniciany "instead of he''\
to " lay in wait '*, " mutual friend ", " polished to the nine ",
" somehow or another ", " this two years ".
As being a mongrel, maniformy for ' multiform,' has no support
in manifold; melancholiac is not justified by maniac; and
senectvde equally does violence to all analog}\
Of one of his mintages Mr. Reade is, apparently, not a little
proud.
"The ceplialomant is he who opposes a priori reasoning, or
mere assumption, to direct evidence, present or accessible.
"I coin the word, not out of pedantry, but with a respectable
motive." TJie Eiyhth Commandment, p. 202.
The Greeks might have made rf^aXo/jorvnc. if they had needed
it. But -fiavTig becomes, regularly, in English, -mancer, and, in
French, -mancien. As the substantives chiromantist and psevdo-
mantisty used by the Rev. John Gaule, are abnormal, so is the
French nicromant ; and yet it must be this word that suggested to
Mr. Reade the utterly unanalogical cephalomant.
And what is the only possible meaning that, according to rule,
the word can bear? Why, not * intuitionalist,' but 'one who
divines from inspection of the head ; ' and such, in one sense, a
phrenologist is, at least in claim. Mr. Reade may prudently be
counselled to leave the extending of our vocabulary to others.
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 27
it is, therefore, only a lowlier class of mortals that I
can count on as finding my views acceptable.
In literature, to which even the least skilful of
stylists and verbalists have usefully contributed, we
meet with books of every degree of artistic merit.
But the ill-written greatly exceed, in mass, the well-
written ; and, again, some writers are, as to manner
and diction, conservative, while others are inno-
vative. Moreover, towards settling how we our-
selves are to write, the aid is verv little that can be
derived from such dictionaries as we have at present,
and from treatises on grammar and rhetoric. How-
ever, unless we choose to stand still, while the rest
of the world moves onward, implicit imitation of old
models, and conformity to precedents established
under conditions no longer subsisting, are not to be
universally recommended. What, then, is to be done ?
The question, considered comprehensively, of what
is proper in language, is not, thus, altogether so
simple of decision as, at first sight, it may look.
Therein, to take a large view of the subject, we have
to deal with a problem the right solution of which
depends on the solutions of one or two antecedent
problems.
First of all, does man exist for language ? The
purists constructively imply that he does, at least in
their own time. , To them, the golden age is past ;
the efibrts of human ingenuity, to any good purpose,
are exhausted ; and we have nothing to do but walk
in the footsteps of those who went before us.^ It is,
' A typical conservative of our day distinctly discourages, by
I liowever, the teaching of common-senae, tliat lan-
I guage, which man createsj destroys, and renews,
1 implication, an not promising anj' useful reBult, all further at-
' tampta Iflwariia the inoreBse of human knowledge.
" In iBtronomy, thii tields of tlie aky have not yet, indeed, been
ransacked by the moat ooally inBtrumenta ; and it may be in bIotb
for some of you to announce the existence, or even to aualysu the
materials, of some luniiiiouB point which may be seen two or three
times in the course of a century, by any one who will journey to
. India for the purpose, and, when there, is favoured by the weather.
I But, for all praetloal purposes, the stars already named and sum-
I bered Bceaamany aswerequire to hearof : and, it yon thoroughly
I know the visible moUons, and clearly onnoeive the known re-
tlatiODS, even of those wbieh can lie seen by the naked eye, you
I Vf'm have as much astronomy as is neoesaary eithBt for the oocu-
I pntion of thought or tlw direction of navigaUptf^ Mr, John Kim-
[ Idn, T/te Eagle't Neit (1872), p. flB, y^
The enrna writer is "certain, that, atthia orisis of our national
Biiateuoo, the fixing the minds of youiig and old upon the custoraa
Land couoeption of chivalry is th^'best of all moral education."
I Ibid., p. '2'i\. Things must have come to a pretty pass with the
I Bnglish people, if there be nothing better for them than poetio
I floCiona, ohieSy from the work-shop of Sir Walter Scott.
"K you were to aak ma who, of all powerful and popular
■iters in the cause of error, had wrought most harm to their
oe, I should hesitate, in reply, whether to name Voltaire, or
I Byron, or the last most ingenious and moat venomous of the
f degraded philosophers of Germany, or, rather, Oervantes." . ■ ■
I Cervantes "cast scorn upon the holiest principles of humanity."
I .... " Since his time, the purest impulses and the noblest pur-
I poses have, perhaps, been oftener stayed by the Devil, under the
1 name of Quixotism, than under any other base name or false
tullegalion." Leeturet en Architecture and Pwintiag, pp. 06, 67.
And what, according to Mr. Ruskin, have we Americans reached I
" Lust of wealtli, and trust in it; vulgar faith in magnitude and
multitude, instead of nobleness; besides that faith natural to
hHCkwoodsmen, hiram I'lgna, perpetual sulf-con temptation, issuing
in passionate vanity ; total ignorance of the tinet and higher arts,
and of all that they teach and bestow ; and the discontent of
enei^etio minds unoccupied, frantic with hopo of uncomprehended
change, and progress they know not whilher." Muatrii Piilverii
(ad. 1872), pp. 130, 131. '
Of these despised creatures we are also there told : " They sent
111 their best and honesteatyoutha. Harvard University men and the
I like, to that accursed war ; got them nearly all shot ; wrote pretty
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 29
exists for man. A never-ceasing flux is the very-
law of its existence. Day by day it loses something ;
biographies (to the ages of 17, 18, 19) and epithets for them, and
so, having washed all the salt out of the nation in blood, left
themselves to putrefaction, and the morality of New York."
That, between his spleen and his somnambulism, the elegant
Pharisee who can say this is not altogether as other men are, " ex-
tortioners," and the like, "or even as this publican," namely, his
ideal American, one is prepared to be told. But one is unexpect-
edly gratified at being assured, as we are assured by no less an
authority than himself, that he is " not an unjust person ; not an
unkind one ; not a false one ; a lover of order, labour, and peace."
Sesanie and Lilies (ed. 1871), Preface, p. xxvii.
Another conservative, Southey, writes thus of political econom-
ists: "What is rent? What is value? Upon these questions,
and such as these, which no man of sincere understanding ever
proposed to himself or others, they discuss and dilate," &c. The
Quarterly Review, Vol. 44 (1831), p. 277.
Still another, Wordsworth, once sang, and — see Landor's WorkSf
Vol. 1, p. 75 — has been justly reproved for singing :
" The mighty moon !
This way she looks, as if at them,
And they regard her not I
O I better wrong and strife ;
Bather vain deeds or evil than such life 1 "
A not dissimilar Wordsworthian utterance, also now altered,
is this :
— " God's most dreaded instrument.
In working out a pure intent.
Is man — arrayed for mutual slaughter :
Yea, Carnage is His daughter."
Mr. De Quincey's comment on^this is significant. " Most heartily,
and with my profoundest sympathy, do I go along with Words-
worth in his grand lyrical proclamation of a truth not less divine
than it is mysterious, not less triumphant than it is sorrowful,
viz., that, amongst God's holiest instruments for the elevation of
human nature, is ' mutual slaughter ' amongst men, — yes, that
'Carnage is God's daughter.'" WorU (ed. 1862), Vol. 4, Ex-
planatory Notices, p. viii.
It seems strange that those who entertain such views should
not reflect how they, or how those whose conclusions they accept
ready-made, come by their notion of God. In an oestrum of vin-
dictive passion, which they regard as a sort ol cde%U^\v(i%v^x^\iv^\i^
30 CHAPTER II.
day by day it gains something. To restrain its
losses, or to discount its gains, is impossible. In-
capable of fixity, if not progressive, it must, of
necessity, retrograde and dwindle ; and, provided
they had their will, those who absolutely resist the
introduction of new words would reduce us, sooner
or later, to sheer inarticulateness. A return to the
condition of Lord Monboddo's protoplastic baboon
even the Carly lists, with their theoretic admiration
of silence, — and practical incontinence of chatter, —
might find it irksome to realize with equanimity.
It is, in a most preponderant proportion, the
language we have inherited that we ourselves use,
and that we shall transmit to our successors. At
our hands it will undergo defalcations ; but it will
also take on accessions at our hands. As new-born
words are constantly offering themselves for recogni-
tion, so not onlv are scattered obsolete words await-
ing resurrection, but words the most current are
every day on their trial ; and, to discover the grounds
they simply project themselves, magnified into non-natural dimen-
sions ; tlie ideal monster they, of course, find to be very good ;
and thenceforward they do worship to it as the adorable Supreme.
But they have lordly prelates and suchlike on their side ; and so
all must be right. " Oh how acceptable a sacrifice to God, above
the bloud of bulls and of goates, is the death of a malefactor
slaughtered by the hand of justice 1 " Thus Bishop Sanderson.
Tfvdre Sermons, &c. (1637), p. 229.
Fortunately for humanity, no people is half so bad as its
theistic idea.
And what is the inference from all this ? It is, that there is no
conceivable absurdity, frivolity, or cruelty which should surprise
us in the thorough-paced conservative, or one who takes his stand
on tradition or imitation, as against reason. If the fires of
Smithfield were to be rekindled to-morrow by legally constituted
authoVity, there is not, I suppose, one English conservative in a
hundred that would raise a dissenting voice.
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 31
on which, in extending favour to the first, in re-
newing it on behalf of the second, and, especially, in
withdrawing it from the third, usage bases its arbi-
traments, baffles, not seldom, our utmost ingenuity of
speculation. A little reflection on these facts should
suffice to evince the egregious folly of purism, the
term by which extreme lingual conservatism is usu-
ally, and much too complimentarily, denominated.
A modern in toga and sandals would be absurd
enough; but a rigid purist is incomparably more
absurd. The former would, at the worst, trespass
against convenience and conventionality only ; but
the other, while so trespassing, also consciously puts
himself out of fully intelligent relations to those
about him, to say nothing of his repellant conceit of
superiority.
Purism, I repeat, is a phasis of the principle which
assumes that the wisdom of man has spent itself, and
which seems to maintain that the world, now in its
second childhood, will best employ its senility in
sitting with folded hands, and magnifying the
sagacity of its vigorous but irrevocable prime. Yet,
as we all know, it is we ourselves, not our predeces-
sors, that are really ancient ; ^ and the conservative
himself seems to acknowledge that we are so ; only
he allows to us no attribute of old age but its infirm-
ity. Rather, on his theory, until lately, things in
general were controlled by a theocracy, — and that
not a government by law, but by Almighty Caprice,
— now withdrawn ; and the living, just so far as they
* This truism has, again and again, been pointedly expressed
and dilated on, as by Hobbes,- Glanvill, Bentham, &o. &c.
a'i CHAPTBB II.
signify any proneness to tliink or to act oiherwiae
lliiin in train, give eridence of their being given
over, by tho divino diMplcoBure, to themselves, which
raeaiia, to Satan. As the yiast was inspired by
Heaven, so the present ia inspired by the Pit. To
the consorvativG, error, for its very hoariness, is
better than truth disfigured by the impress of novelty.
"Why, then, think of altering our translation of the
Bible P Or why revise the Thirty-nine Articles?
Tho bare thought of ovorbauling the Canon of Scrip-
ture is, to the true conservative, heresy, sacrilege, blas-
phemy, or the sin thut shall not he forgiven. Science,
except in the shape of pure mathematics, is, in hia
belief, a subterfuge for escaping from Greek and
Latin ; and then it makes one un com for fable about
the credit of Adam, and tlic Old Serpent, and Moses,
and Bahel, and all that. The rights of man he has
gradually grown used, after long years of disquietude,
to hear talked of, without apprehension of catalepsy;
but you must wait for bis son, or for his son's son; if
you would get a candid hearing for the rights of
woman. New words, too, as thoy seem to confirm liia
conviction of our decayed and decaying condition,
he frowns at askance, and leaves to the radicals.
His port is not presentable, unless bees'-winged ; the
chief value of his medals lies in their patina ; and
words, as be juilges of them,
" Like statues, wouldar into worth." '
' Qui Id or a piece witli the silliness of ultrai-pumU is that petti-
nOB or inind which seon legitimate ground for personal disparoge-
nii'nt in (he ventiarcs of foreigners to write our Inngunge.
" Ilfiw many hours of hard lulmur, during how many jears' ra-
■■, tlilg coantrj, did H oot cost tho lenmcd Westphalian,
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 33
Primarily, provided they are recommended by age,
all is well and good ; but, failing this recommenda-
Ludolph Kuster, a person of great intellectual abilitj'', to acquire
the knowledge which he possessed of the English tongue ? Yet no
one can pass from his Latin letter, in p. 238, to its English post-
script, in p. 239, without feeling that the writer has suddenly sunk
greatly in his estimation." Bishop Christopher Wordsworth,
The Correspondence of Richard Bentley, D.D.^ Preface, p. 14.
Under favour, I trust that very few persons indeed, not of the
class of hopeless parvanimities of the true insular stamp, would be
otherwise than heartily ashamed of so feeling. Conceding that
Kuster*8 Latinity is of the purest, let us look at the specimen of
bis English above referred to.
" P.S. I shal gow, within few days, to Amsterdam, where I
shall stay for the other gentlemen deputies from your University
for the Francfort jubilee. We went together from Berlin to
Hannover ; but from thence they went to Hamburg, Bremen,
Groningen, etc., for to go Holland, which places I having seen
before, I went directly to Holland. Mr. Crownlield shal tel you
more by mouth of that which hath passed at Berlin? What glori-
ous newes have we had lately 1 To-day we hear here that Ostend
hath submitted to King Charles ; and, two days ago, there came
an express to the Hage, to the Emperor's envoye, who brougth a
particular relation of the relief of Barcelona ; that the siege was
raised the same day when the son was eclipsed ; that the french
armee was totaly routed, with the loss of 8000 man, which died at
the spot ; that they left behind tham al their cannons, mortars,
bagage, etc. ; and that King Philippus escaped narrowly ; who,
as I hear to-day, is alreadi passed through Montpelier. But of
this you must have the news in a short time in Engeiand. If you
please to answer me, you may direct the letter to Amsterdam, and
recommend it to Mr. Halma, who will take care that I may re-
ceive it. Vale iterum."
It should be remembered that Kuster was writing to a friend,
perhaps in great haste, and, most probably, with no forecast that
bis English,. any more than his Latin, was ever to be printed.
Further, at the time when he wrote, little heed was paid, by Eng-
lishmen, to the matter of English orthography. His mistakes are,
then, not a whit worse than analogous ones would be, if committed
in conversation. All things considered, the English of Bentley,
everywhere but in his formal compositions, is incomparably more
censurable than that of his Prussian correspondent.
Englishmen who professedly and passionately despise their
fellow-creatures for the slightest sin against what they themselves
esteem to be good usage, or for not having bo iiQ,^\i ^ T£i!^\si!c>T^ ^^
3
Si CHAPTER II,
tion, they will, still, be sterling to Iiim, if originated
or authenticated by some leader in fashion, politics,
or letters. To hira, however, all other bases of justi-
fication, as regards language, are revolutionary. If
you urge, either here or anywhere else, expedience,
the motive of reason, he calls you a utiKtarian.
The greater excommunication being thua denounced
against you, there ia, of course, an end.
Again, since we cannot choose but have new words,
the argument of authority is to be considered. " Tan-
quam scopulum sic fugias inauditum atque insolens
verbura ", was the admonition of Julius CRisar to the
orator ; ' and one might suppose, from the precepts
and the practice of many of our would-be literary
legislators, that the advice applied indifferently to all
mankind, and could admit of no abatement or quali-
fication from time or circumstances. Occasions are,
assuredly, easily conceivable, to which this advice
would be pertinent, and on which it would be whole-
some. At the Bume time, if takeiL abstractedly, and
for universal application, nothing could be more un-
miautics as (liemsclvea, ctobb one's pftth constantly ; and It is this
tbeir peculiarity of tbinlciiig and expressing foul suorn of hII but
their own apes, wliich so oRen makea Ihelr sootety unwelcome to a
foreignef, Mr. RuBkin tells us that " a f«isu acuent, or n mistaken
syllable, ia enough, in the pnrtiatiient of uny civilized natioa. to
uaign to a man a certain def^e of inferior standing Cor ever."
Seiiime and Lilie) (ed. 1871), pp. 18, 19.
No locus penitenCiffi, be it obaerved, is provided for the unfortun-
ate barbarian who, perhaps from having been long exuluslvety
absorbed in the wisest thoughts of the wisest men, or from haring
b«en etigaiced, as a traveller, in studying distant nations, happens
to lie unacquainted with the fashion of the hour in, fur instance,
laying the Blreaa on the antepenult of ft word, and not on it! penult.
' See Aulus Qelliu^ Book 1, Ch. 10 ; and compare Mucroblus,
Salum., Book 1, Ch. G.
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 35
wise, not to say futile. The simple reasons are, that
no expression was ever yet used which some one had
not to handsel, and that we not only may, but
must, continue to do what the world has always been
doing. Does, then, the warrant of a single person
validate a neoterism,' or, what is scarcely distinguish-
able therefrom, a resuscitated obsoletism ? In reply,
it may be asked. How can we ever know that, before
any given new expression meets our own eyes, it may
not already have been accepted by hundreds who
know how to discriminate what is acceptable ? Fur-
thermore, though not yet so accepted, why may there
not be a something about it which will secure its
eventual acceptance ? Justly viewed, and by those
that can discern, the first of these questions is of very
little importance. Everything now established was
once unestablished, and the very latest of novelties.
It is not the ponderation of personal evidence for or
* Dr. Parr, having, in 1789, written remarker^ subjoins this note
on it : "I am not quite satisfied with this word, though Johnson,
in his Dictionary, afl&xes to it the authority of Watts. I use it
from necessity, or, at least for the sake of avoiding the tiresome
periphrasis of saying * the writer of the remarks.' " Works, Vol.
3, p. 377. Colman had used the word in 1765. See Prose on
Several Occasions, Vol. 2, p. 69.
A little before, at p. 361, Dr. Parr thus annotates his own in-
veterate : ** The authorities of Fletcher and Bacon protect the word
inveterate from the charge of Latinism."
It appears, accordingly, that, in Dr. Parr's opinion, a single
known authority for a word leaves its propriety doubtful, but that
two known authorities for a word attest it competently. This is a
fair specimen of the imbecile ratiocination of purists.
As to inveterate, besides having long been, when Parr hesitated
at it, most familiar in its classical sense, it had already come to
signify, in popular speech, as it still signifies, * virulent.' Henry
Brooke wrote, in 1760 : " He was informed, in terms the most
fMfgravating and inveterate, of the whole course and history of
Ked'g misbehaviour." The Fool of Quality (ed. n\J*2^,No\. 1, \). ^V
I
CHAPTER II.
against a word that should accredit or discredit it.
If it stands firmly on its own hasis, it is vouched for,
as eligible, in its own right. Let it, however, be
examined with all rigour, before being favourably
pronounced upon and patronized. And let its ex-
aminer first examine himself as to bis quahfications
for sitting in judgment on it. Quite possibly, it la
much the safcat plan for him to do his thinking, on
such u matter, as on most others, by prosj'. Nay, it
may even be, that, while he plumes himself on his
philology, he is no better than a duplicate of Mr.
Ri(-hard Grant AVhite.
To enumerate and criticize all the verbal and ex-
pressional solecieras which disfigure our literature
would be an undertaking of enormous labour, and
yet of only verj' partial utility. Even suppose that
these solecisms were collected, and were character-
ized, one after another, as militating against analogj','
or as superfluous, ambiguous, vulgar, affected, and so
on, and the reasons given for thus characterizing
them ; still, a lai^e majority of speakers and writers,
from defect of memory, from insufficient learning, or
from incapacity to grasp and to apply principles,
would, either of their own motion, or in imitation of
others, go on solecizing pretty much as before. A
diligent and scrupulous adherence to approved models
is, therefore, for most persons, not only the best
lesson to learn, but the only lesson they are able to
learn ; and, after all, it will be prudent, in them, not
' Aoa]ogy. tnhen iu Ita greatest latitude, ii a term which, iia
^plied to languBgB, Bmbroeea, willi oilier tiling eiijihony ; iiriil
our notions of Eni^tinh euphony largely preclude not oiilj' long
•rart/g liaC barah ones.
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. » 37
to think they have learnt it otherwise than yery im-
perfectly, until they shall have taken counsel with
their better-informed associates. As they would
avoid sailing the good ship Language without rudder
or compass, they would do well to forswear every-
thing like independence altogether. Humility and
self-distrust, though often hypocritically overdone,
embrace, for most people, the germs of virtue. Be-
sides, how bountifully have Providence and the
wisdom of our ancestors^ provided us with popes,
' The sapience of our forefathers and the defectiveness of our
dictionaries are simultaneously illustrated by the bead-roll of
mataeology embodied in the extract here following.
" What difference betwixt astrornancy, magoniancy^ or m^xgaS'
tromancy, — as touching a sorcerous both superstition and opera-
tion, — and all these after-named? viz., stareomancy [read stoe-
cheioniancy'\y or divining by the elements ; aeromancy, or divin-
ing by the ayr ; pyromancy , by fire ; hydromancy, by water ;
geamancy, by earth ; theomancy, pretending to divine by the reve-
lation of the Spirit, and by the Scriptures or Word of God ; de-
monomancyj by the suggestions of evill demons or devills ; idolo-
fimruyyy by idoUs, images, figures ; psyclwrnancy, by men's souls,
afifections, wills, religious or morall dispositions ; antinopomancy
[read enteropomancy~\^ by the entrails of men, women, and child-
ren ; theriomancy, by beasts ; omithomaney, by birds ; iehthyO'
mancy, by fishes ; hotanomancy, by herbs : litJiomancy, by stones :
cleromancy, by lotts ; oneiromancy, by dreams ; onomatomancy^
by names ; arithmancy, by numbers ; logarithmancy^ by logar-
itiimes ; sternomancy, from the breast to tbe belly ; gastrortiancy,
by the sound of, or signes upon, the belly ; omphalomancyj by the
navell ; cheiromancy^ by the hands ; podomancy, by the feet ;
onychomancyy by the nayles ; cephalonomancyy by brayling of an
asse's head ; tephram>ancy, by ashes ; capnomancy, by smoak ;
Ubanomancy, by burning of frankincence ; ceromancy, by melting
of wax ; lecanomancy, by a basin of water ; catoptromancy ^ by
looking-glasses ; clutrtomancy, by writing in papers ; machero-
maney, by knives or swords ; crystallomancy, by glasses ; dacty-
lioTnancy, by rings ; coscinomancy, by selves ; axinom^ncy, by
sawes [axes] ; cottabomancyf by vessells of brasse or other metall ;
roadomancy [read rliabdom^noy'], by starres [staves] ; ftpatih-
mancy, by skins^ bones, excrements ; sciomancy^ b^ %\i<ajiv^^^<& *^
priests, philologists, and other 'procurators, special-
ists, and experts ! And how melancholy would be
their outlook, if, as a rule, we preferred Ihe flicker-
ing glimmer of our own profane rusUigLta to the
noonday effulgence of their consecrated illumination !
To whatever is most current in language, to phrase-
ology as yet purely tentative, and to all that inter-
venes between the two, the argument of these tritest
of reflections applies with equal cogency.
If the doctor ia to be believed, my neighbour is
aufiering from idiopathic bajmatemesis ; a callow
student of theology confesses that he is fairly gravel-
led by the hypostatic circumincession ; and a mathe-
matician, with Lis emotions under imperfect control,
risea into raptures about the properties of equian-
eitmstilonianpy, by dine; teaitmaney, by wine; tyeontanoy, by
figga i tyromaacy, by the ooRKuIation of oheeae ; alphltomaneg,
by ineitl, flower, or bmnne : erithopiancy. by grain or corn ; alct-
teramanc;/, by oocka or pnllen ; gyromancy, by rounda or oircluB ;
lampainmaney, by candlea and tanips ; and, in one word for all,
nagtimaaey [resd nRi'yinnanry] or necTDmanci/, by inspectiDg-, con-
Bulling, and divining by, wlCb, or from, tha dead." Jobn Gaule,
nSc-fiavria, Tkf Mayaitrinnanoer, or the Magieall-aitmlegleall
Divjmr, Pated atid Pnixled (1659), pp. 165, 16S.
Gaule, whose curious and amusini; liook. appan!ntly dashed off
in wbite-hot rage, lias aa table of errata, perhaps wrote an indistinct
Land, and certainly did not read bis prooE-sheels. SJeveral minor
misprints in the preceding extract I bave corrected silently ; as,
fbr instance, typojna.iU'y, for tymmaney. Considered philologiooily,
arithmimpy and loyaritkmimity are as lawless as the pntatlces
which the words denote ore fatuous.
Dr. Roget, in his Tli^mtiriu, givea, under ju^io/al itttrelogy, tha
names of numerous false sciences. His list, t1iouj-h not so full as
Gaule'fl, BupplemenlB it by niileen abwirditiea, among whioh are
chaniiuinry, halaiuanry, and ptephmaanBy. From other sources I
have gleaned antkropoaumcy, euboniaHcy, pahniaitoy, and rliap«i-
domanpj/.
Of tliB terms here specified, no fewprthaii thirlj-.one have eacapoj
Dr. Webster's editors.
i 11^'
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 39
harmonic liexasti&:mata. Are not these masters of
hyperpolysyllabic sesquipedalianism using proper
language? Heaven forfend that any one should
suppose they were not, or that they should be de-
prived of so much as a single short vowel. To
Roger Stubbs they will be as unintelligible as O'Con-
nell, with his rectangular parallelopipedon, was to
the fishwife. If they use such language, they might
as well address Roger in Hottentotese or Kamscha-
dalian. Yet they are in the right, for all that.
Whether this way of delivering their meaning would
be everywhere and always appropriate is quite an-
other thing. But, fortunately, there are occasions
and occasions ; and it would bring us to a beggarly
sort of talk indeed, if we had always to conform our
expressions to a canon imitated, even in its ** ubique "
and "ab omnibus", from that of St. Vincent of
Lerins. Language may be at once perfectly correct
and ludicrously inappropriate. Experience and tact
instruct us when it is appropriate ; but scholarship
alone can enable us to estimate its correctness. On
the one hand, we study nothing beyond adapting
ourselves to circumstances ; on the other hand,
whenever we deviate — though we should never deviate
save expedientially — from accepted usage, a strict
observance of analogy, and of analogy taken in its
most comprehensive acceptation,^ is invariably indis-
pensable.*
* See the note in p. 36, supra,
• This is the creed inculcated, for general guidance, by all
philologists but those of the transcendental school, gentlemen
that hold convei'se with some one beyond the clouds, who
getties how men and women should speak, much better than they
By accepted usage in speech we underetand that
which is practised, or approved, consentiently and
onn settle the ijuestion themsnlvps. Tliis mysterioiiB arliiler,
stripped of hia diHguiae, turtia out, liuwevcr, ti> be uuly n dexterouB
metamorphnsiE of pereonal conceit or caprice. Our iexiuogiapbers
are, to a man, tronscendentaliHtij, od occasion.
Tnke Dr. JohnBon, for inatance. Ercepti'ag, hb a preposition,
he calls " improper" ; naA tmoothen is, to him, "bad". On the
other hand, 7Coma»ize, be JegielnteB, though "not tl^ed", is
Now, judged anBlogicaU;, ewceptiiig and i^inothen are as good as
fating and runjAun,- but, as to wamanise, if it be "proper", why
should not manisie, boyite, and girlbe be no 7 Referring to usage,
wa find we bare excelleoi authority for rareej/tixg ; for funeethcH,
— used, I tlnd, \ij Howell, in his Tmelre Sercriil Treatitei, &o.
(1G61), p. 375, — only the authority of " mechanics ", to Dr. John-
bod's knowledge ; and the sole writer whom he <AVf» for trumanixe
is Hit Philip tjiduef. Thus we see, that words, as he viewed them,
though ever so well supporled b; good usage, may be " im-
proper"; again, that their atrioMst conformity to rule is not
enough, unless the7 are countennDced by the polite world, f^ keep
them from being " bad " ; and, further, that, though their forma-
tion is warranted by nn annlogy hut little better than non-exigient,
a single favourite author stamps them, by admission into his pages,
a£ " proper ".
In Tlw Plan nf an Englhh DiBtiim/iTH, Johnson propounds, as
one of his maxims : '■ Burbarous, or impure, word* and e-ipressions
may be branded with some note of infamy ; as thej' are carefullj
to be eradicated, wherever thej are found ; and they occur, too
frequently, even in tliB beat writers", And immediately after
this follow epecimeus, one of whiah is the line from Fnpe :
" 'Tit these that early taint the female soul ".
Here, once more, we have him setting up his own private whim as
law. 'T ia theie, or it m tliejK, and like expressions, had been in
DBB, In Ills time, some two centuries, at least, and had become
ineradicably established. "It i» theg". Bluhop Bale, Xgnge
JoKan (before lli63), p. 30 (ed, 1B3S). "'TU ire." Samuel
Rowlands (lUOO— in?), ^'e livr Knai^ft.p. 43 (ed. 18«). What
Johnson took to he the mure grammatieal expression than Pope's
— as the "they are thiy" in St. John, 6, 89, — was quite given
up, and hopeless of resuBCilation ; but 't ii tlifiif, ax not suiting
his s)>eculafive notions of symax. was not to be allowed ; and,
contiequeally, nothing but an aukwnrd and iuadecjuufe peripbrasia
PROPRIETY IN SPEECH. 41
advertently/ by the best writers and speakers of any
given time.* And what is to be said of such usage,
as a precedent for guidance? The advice to the
world at large is, after being at all pains to find out
what it is, to take up with it. But the learned never
will be, as they never have been, so easily satisfied.
Points of grammar left out of question, they know
that accepted usage in speech, contemplated as a
whole, with its large basis of ignorance, and its fre-
quent violence of analogy, deserves no better epithet
than that of tolerable. Hence their proposals of
improvement on what, to their discontent, they find
established: and, in demonstration that they do
wisely to innovate, many an expedient of theirs, now
in the way of addition, and now in the way of sub-
stitution, is seen to become, eventually, a fixture.^
remained as available. With it is these he must, necessarily, pro-
scribe it is those, it is they, it is we, it is you, it was men, &c. &c.
In these phrases he has to do, as he puts it, with what is* " bar-
barous ", or else with what is " impure " ; for they were not, in his
day, obsolete. His professed preference for pre- Restoration English
ought to have reconciled him to them, if he had not been utterly
iiiconsistent and unscientific.
* These qualificatives are necessary ; for Landor well observes :
" Good writers are authorities for only what is good, and by no
means, and in no degree, for what is bad, which may be Jound
even in them." Works, Vol. 1, p. 207.
It is because of these facts, and not from inconsistency, that I
do not hesitate to challenge, on some occasions, in my support, an
author whom, on other occasions, I arraign for going, in his less
wise moods, more or less completely astray.
' " Consuetudinem sermonis vocabo consensum eruditorum, sicut
Vivendi consensum bonorum." Quintilian, I., 4.
' In the fourth chapter I give a noteworthy list of expressions
used by Hamon L'Estrange, which, if his critic, Heylin, may be
trusted, though deemed amenable to censure, as pedantic novelties,
about the middle of the seventeenth century, are now, for the most
part, of everyday occurrence.
CHAPTER m.
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY.
JJia dia es siempre maestro del otro ; y contra lo que ai acribs oj,
esCar^ nianans quien Babe maa. — Mendaza.
Addison confidently alleges that Milton Tainted
the word miscreated.'' Yet it occurs in Spenser, witli
the shorter form mucreaie ; and the latter is employed
by Shakeapenre, also.
" Elate is a participle ; but there is no such word
as ' to eiale', I imagine." So wrote Gray, in 1760 ;'
and his imagination ill supplied the placo of re-
search.'
' TAe Speclalar. No. 28S. " Authors are often praised for improre-
ment, or blamed fur innoTation, with verj lUde justice, by tbose wbo
read fen other books of the same age, Addison himself bos been so
niwaoceasful in eunraerBtiag the words with which MiKon has eu-
riehed oar language, as, porhaps, not to hare named one of vhich
Milton wa«tha author." Dr. Jabaina,I^iipatal/orPriiili«fftht Workt
tf Shaketpiare.
' Workt (ed. Mitford, 1858), Vol. 5, p. 209. Gray's Tsrbal criti-
ms, almost without eioeption, betray very limited reading, or else
I H miMrable memory. 1 return to this point in the next chapter.
' The references vhicb folloiT are only a few to what [ might giie.
William Wataoii, A DmaairdaH of Ttn Quodiibitieall Qiuiliotu (1602),
pp. 105, 139. Ddohh, fteBrfo-wflrtyr (1610),p. 210. Thomas Gniiis-
ford (1618), in Tht SarUia» Mi»eellany (ed. Oldys and Park), Vol,
6, p. S64, Feltham, BenilcH, DM«e, Xaral, Foliliciil (ed. 1628), First
Centorie, p. SS ; Second Ceiit., p. 12. firathnait, The Zivtn of
All tie Soman Emperort (1636), p. 854. Howell, Doilaiia'i Gim't
(1640), pp. 193, 206. Flecknn, A Malion b/ Jkn Fen™ 2Vflo^/ft
(1665), p. 131. Fuller, Tbt Apptnl of lajarid ImioteHHf, ka. (1359),
Tart 3, p. 61. Henrj tHoie. Mifttei-^ o/ Im'quHi/ (vd. 1661). pp. 147.
118, 119. (Jknviil, Strji>ij Seknlijlett (eJ. 1665), p. 153. Trans, of
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 43
Having used the word auccedaneous, William Tay-
lor thus comments on it : " We are writing on coins.
May we not coin a word ? ''^ On certain conditions,
most assuredly; only the vocable in question had
been used by Sir Thomas Browne, Robert Boyle,
Henry More,* and Dr. Johnson.^
Taylor further states, that Burke first employed
the word entirety,^ In the form entierty, it occurs in
Bacon. And he strangely censures to count on, as a
foreign idiom.^
Sir James Mackintosh* speaks of "Parr's new-
coined word syllogize.'* It has been used, every now
and then, since the fifteenth century.'
According to Mr. Isaac D'Israeli, " we still want
incuriosity'*^. He meant, that it was not noticed by
// Nipotiamo, &c. (1673), Part 2, p. 163. Barrow, JForks (ed. 1683—
92), Vol. 3, p. 193. Bishop Warburton (1724), Tracts by Warburton,
&c., p. 36. Henry Brooke (1735), Universal, Beauty, Book 2, 1. 17.
Miss Westcomb (1760), The Correspondence of Samuel Michardso^,
&c., Vol. 3, p. 2Y4. Dr. Johnson (1750—52), The Bamblery Nos. 26,
66,91, 133, 142, 148, 164, 180, 182, 193 ; &c. &c. Tilson, The
World (1766), No. 167.
1 The Mofithly Review, Vol. 79 (1816), p. 606.
a Mystery of Godliness {ed,- 1660), p. 113; Mystery of Iniquity,
p. 488 : Annotations upon Lux Orientalis, &c. (1682-3), p. 206.
' A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, Castle of Col.
* The Monthly Review, Vol. 27 (1798), p. 642.
» Ibid,, Vol. 17 (1795), p. 311. • life, &c., Vol. 1, p. 141.
'' See Bp. Pecock's Repressor (1456), pp. 76, 78. Other vouchers
are here indicated. Cowley, Cutter of Coleman-street, Act 4, Sc. 4.
Barrow, Works (ed. 1683—92), Vol. 3, p. 124. Sir Thomas Ur-
qiihart, Translation of Rabelais (ed. 1694), Vol. 1, p. 176. Sterne,
Tristram Shandy, Vol. 1, Ch. 16 ; Vol. 4, Ch. 40. Dr. Johnson
quotes Baker and Watts for it.
® Curiosities of Zitei'ature, Chapter entitled History of New Words.
Mr. D' Israeli there calls the French demoralisation a ^* barbarous
terra*'. By this we are only to understand that he disrelished the
political principles of its reputed author.
Dr. Jolinson. It is used I)y Jeremy Taylor, and by
many writers of subseq^uent date.'
"Let me claim the honour of one pure neologism",
again writes Mr. D'lsraeli.' " I ventured to intro-
duce the term of father-land, to describe our natalo
solum. I have lived to see it adopted by Lord Byron
and by Mr. Southey ; and the word is now common."
The HttBCB^expression faiher-lnnd was spoken of
by Sir William Temple,' as long ago as 1672.
"Notwithstanding a repugnauce to neologisms in
common speech", writes Mr. Samuel Bailey,* "there
is one which, as I am in a commercial district, I
Atcllbiehop Trench, in like manner, Hpeuks of " the nlDiiBtroua
birth, dcnBminatia)iala)ri" . SnglUh Fail and Preient, Lecture 2.
There ia no neoeasity, eioept for the ante of the aninilmted, to supplj
the aacerdotitl anbauJitinn ; " Monstrous birth, of course : seeing that
I eatertBiin for diasonters the aitme description of apostolic love that
9t. Paul oatertaiaed for Alexander the Eopporsmith." Eatablahmsnta'
rianisiii, all the more grateful for ita "linked eweetnesa long tiravrn
out", waa, honever, wont, no doubt, to roll oier the prelatial tongne,
as the most savoury of polysyllables. In the good old days o( un-
ledreaaed Irish wrongs, it must have been, to His Graiio, a source of
qnite as mucli rufreahtn; and comfort as the crone of the old story
derived (rom her favourite XeiapBlenia.
' See Dr. Bichardson's Dictionai-y. and Archdeacon Todd'e additions
tn Or. Johnaon's. To the authorities named by them I may add
Samon L'Gstrange, Thi Hsijia of Sinn Charlei {ed. 105fl), p. 9 : TAd
Allianct of l)im»t Officii (ISSS], p. 18.
The synonymous iiuurioittiuii I have one additional old authorJlj
for,— Gaule, ITDc-fiavria (1652), p. 192.
Heytin's animadversion on inewf I'nw, as being a novelty, I refer to
in the next chapter. See, for the nord, Doaae, Sialhanatot (Ut ed.}. p.
205 : Gauls, nvg-^ai-Tla, p. 52; Trans, of It Cardiualumo, &a. (1670),
p. 11 : Hamon L'Bstrange, The Siipt, &c., pp. £, 92. L'Eatrauge,
in the same work, nses iiicHriemly at pp. 53, B2.
' CuTioiilin of Literalurt, uU lUpra.
' " The Dutch, by eiproaaiona of doamesa, instead of ■ our country ',
say ' auf falAfr-lami '."' itUotllanfa (ad. 1097), Part I, p. 66.
' LiKourm on Variaai SulgtetM (1862), p. 77.
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 45
would venture to propose, and to which T think good
taste might soon be reconciled. At present, it is
common to use the participle manufacturing as an
adjective, in such phrases as * the agricultural and
manufacturing interests ', which is awkward enough.
From this awkwardness the introduction of the legi-
timately formed word manufactural would relieve
U8.^' William Taylor had printed the expression
" manufactural demand ", nearly half a century
before.*
Mr. G. P. Marsh writes of " semeiology, if I may
coin a word for the occasion".^ But, in 1694, Peter
Motteux, in a very popular book, printed : " These
ways of signifying pur thoughts by gestures, called,
by the learned Bishop Wilkins, semceology *'.^
A writer in the Saturday Revieic says*, in a critique
on Lander's Hellenics : *' We have words used in
senses altogether unprecedented ; as sepulture, for
* sepulchre ', " &c. Now, sepulture has been used, in
this sense, by Gower^ Capgrave*, Sir Thomas Elyot",
1 The Annual Beview, Vol. 4 (1806), p. 38.
* Lectures on the English Language, foot-note to p. 34.
3 Urquhart's Itabelais, Vol. 1, Preface, p. 98.
* Vol. 9 (1860), p. 250. Unless appearances are fallacious, this
notorious exponent of the conceit, insolence, and pruriency of cultured
Young England is nearing the end of its career. And the end of its
career, if realized, will be significant for good.
It is a curious phenomenon which the rising generation of English-
men so largely exhibit, in oscillating between High Church and the
Cities of the Plain.
* For this reference, and that to Holinshed, see Dr. Richardson's
Dietionaryy where, however, the quotations are misunderstood.
* Chronicle of England, p. 6. Capgrave died in 1464.
■y <* Marius .... also caused Caius Ceesar .... to be vyolently
drawen to the sepulture of one Varius, a Bimple and %^^\\\qm% '^^x^'cax^
46 CHAPTEK III.
IToUnsbed, Stow', Mabbe*, Lithgow^ Eruthwait',
and Sir Thomas Browne ' ; and even Charles Lamb °
and Cardinal Wiseman ' have ventured it.
" Alone, in the sense of ' only '," has recently been
clasaed ' among the trespasses of " pretentious blun-
derers, for whom the legitimate resources of our
incomparable English language would seem to be
insufficient." The subjoined references demonstrate
that this sense of alone is no novelty". Aa to its
and there to bee dishoneBlIj-e sluyne ", &e. The Gocemnur (1531), ful.
100 (ed. IS80). > Armi/ia [ei. I61d), p. 45.
' " Mj money woa the prica of blouii ; it was sptnt upon tepldtnrH
for dend hiidias, on dead workes, and worldly Tii:e6". 77ie Sogue (ed.
1023). Piirt 2, p. 213. ___
* " We saw . . . also the mpullnrei of David nnd of hia sonne
Salomon ". Tie Tolali jyiaeoiirse, &c. (ed. 1632), p. 248.
* "Hee [Uaientiu^] wna . . throwne and drowned in the river
Tiber, having no other efpHll.un then the rivBr". The
Zivti of All ihi SaiHan Emperori, p. H6.
* Pmudadaxia Epidemiea (ed. 1668), p. 24. The poasaje referred
tn is i]uated by Dr. Johnson, in iUu<itration of the only menning which
he, like other lesieoeropherB, pvea of Mfpullure, " interment, burial ".
Eiidentlj, he hiu muitakcn the sense of the word in thia piloe ; and
ho hiiB, fiirther, corrupted "their sepultures" intn "her aepnltura" ;
and Archdeacon Todd and Dr. Latham reprint thia false reading.
Mr. Simon Wilkin, in hia elegant edition of Browne, has i/pii/chret,
which reading appears, for thu flnt lime, in the pdition of 1686, the
eurliest published after the nuthor's dmth.
The Latin lepulluiii, the Italian trpollara, and tbe French tiputture
have, all, ' grave ', for one of their meanings.
' Tht Lift EssHgi of Mfa, Amieua Bcdieivia.
' FaUola. p. \m. Mr. G. P. Mniih, lOO. Uses MptiUmi, for ' burLd-
phLce', inhia J/n»iinrf.Vulum(iasi), p. 70. 'oot-note.
« Bj Mr. John Fiako, in Tlie North Auieriean S/miew, VoL lOfl
(1869), p. 316, foot-note,
* "JeBiuChristc,our aloiii Savionr and Rodemer". Phillip Stuh-
lies, T&i Amtomii of Aiuasa (1586), p. 229 {ed. 133G).
Want of apiice ferbi<la mr uivin;; at length the paaaoges about to be
indicated. Samuel Hioron, Warii (ed. 162*), VoL 1, pp. 108, 133,
169, 089, 696, 708, &e. Joliu Ealon, Thi mntyinimln of Free Jmli-
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 47
currency, I doubt whether, since it first of all came
into vogue, it has ever been wholly in abeyance ^.
JUation^ &c. (1642), p. 212. Edward Terry, A Voyage to East-India
(ed. 1665), p. 293. Timothy Puller, The Moderation of the Church
of England^ &c. (1679), p. 20 (ed. 1843). Bp. Sanderson, Sermons
(ed. 1681), Vol. 1, pp. 12, 60, 173, 215, 314.
" A poeme is not alone any worke or composition of the poet's, in
many or few verses ; but even one alone verse sometimes makes a per-
fect poeme ". Ben Jonson, Timber ^ What meane you by a Poeme ?
The prepositive alone objected to by Mr. Fiske should, as is seen,
have been defined by * sole ', * single *, as well as by * only '.
*' I can assure you it was sport alone^ and was able to make as many
as beheld it to breake their hearts with laughing, to see '*, &c. Mabbe,
The Rogue, &c. (ed. 1623), Part 2, p. 315.
In this passage, as in several in Shakespeare, alone, postpositive, has
the peculiar sense of ' above all things ', ' unique ', * without compa-
rison *.
With the uses of alone, noted above, compare the uses of only in the
following extracts.
" But, as for the five laste, love, labor, gladnes to leame of others,
boldues to aske doutes, and will to wynne praise, be [t. e., they are]
wonne and maintened by the onelie wisedome and discretion of the
scholemaster '*. Ascham, The Scholemaster (1570), p. 42 (ed. 1870).
** Speach is not naturall to man, saving for his onely habilitie to
speake", &c. Puttenham, p. 119.
'* This only uoale is enough to kindle the fire ". Mabbe, The Rogue,
Part 2, p. 261.
" Infants . . are onely charged with onely original sin '*. Ilamon
L'Estrange, The Alliance, &c., p. 239.
In these extracts, only means ^ mere * ; in those to come, ' sole ', a
sense we still give it, — but with strange restriction, — as in * an only
son*, &c.
" "WonderfuU cost was bestowed by Aramanthus, who had the onely
orderyng of the matter". Bamabe Riche, Farewell to Militarie
Profession (1581), p. 183 (ed. 1846).
" Choice and select fashions are there in onely request ". Brathwait,
The English Gentleman, &c. (ed. 1641), p. 309.
Latimer wrote, in 1549 : '* Then lette us truste upon hys onelye death,
and looke for none other sacrifice propiciatorye ", &c. Fourth Sermon
(ed. 1868), pp. 33, 34. *' Onelye death" is here equivalent to * death
alone*
* At the beginning of this century, a shallow English critic, the
Bcv. Mr. Boucher, having quoted from a pamp\i\et l\i.Q d^w&^ ^^ TCksAi^
Rash and erroneous utterances of the same Bort
as these bestrew our modern literature in great
plenty. Nay, even among our professed critics of
language, those who have not compromised their
character for caution and accuratiy, by adding to tha
already existent mass of them, are signally excep-
tional. Nothing can he more hazardous than to pro-
nounce that a given word has never before been
used, or that it has never before borne a certain sig-
nifieation. Nor ia it, by any means, always safe to
assert that a word or phrase came, originally, from
the American side of the Atlantic. As we are not
now specially concerned with Americanisms, two or
three illustrations of this position may suffice.
As recently aa 1856, a contributor to Notes and
Qiierien,* in the course of an excursion through a
Kentucky newspaper, encountered the expression in
our midal, seized upon the, to him, new-born monster.
Dr. Franklin the alaae minister", condemned it as blemiabeLl bj aa
Americanisra. Dr. WorcBater rapliad to tbia, baetilj, that "it would,
pmbably, be aa diflioult to find, in an American, as in an English,
writer, anntbirr instance in which aloiu is uaeil in the samo munner aa
in the pamphlet cited". Ilicthnnrg (ed. 1800), p. li. The Doctor
forgot, that, in his edition oF Johnson's Dklienary abrid^^d (IStfi),
p. 1030. ha hiid roforrad to the IIbv. J. Newton, and to Dr. Chalmers,
(or loouLiona like " the alone method of salvation". To these modern
anthoritira I may add John Woslcy. who writes of " the nlinie merits
of our Lord Jihui Christ". Southey'a Lift ef Waliy (ed. 1861),
Tol. 2, p. 17*.
Pbrasuolo^ of thia kind may often be beard from aO'Called eran-
gelical English pnlpits, and met with in the printed literatnre of the
occupanla of those pulpits. The self-accommmlatiHg.Bp. Wilberforoe,
when, a few years ago, be wrote of "the aloiit Saviour", was ridiculed,
in that, when hu deanseil his skirts of Low-uburohiam. he did not fully
unlearn its ciiarocteristio jargon.
' Second Sarioa, Vol. 1, p. 9.
OmilTrVB PHILOLOGY. 49
and tliat an Araerican monster, and bcnevoletitly
volunteered himself as its showman. Dr. AVorcester,
under the date of 1860, informs na that "our midd,
t/mr midst, &c. are of recent introduction" ; Mr. G.
P. Marsh ' etigroatizes these phrases aa " vidf^arisms ",
" now unhappily very common ", and as " gross
eoleciems", "unsupported by the authority of pure
idiomatic English writers " ; and Dr. Webster's
editors declare that they " seem contrary to the
genius of our language ", and follow suit to Mr.
Marsh in his patlios over them. The fact is, how-
ever, that in their midst existod in the fourteenth
century ; and it is no wonder that, on heing intro-
duced to the nineteenth century, it has met with
rebufls. If, though certified aa our veritable ance-s-
tors, even the good old men and wives of five hun-
dred years ago were suddenly to drop in on us, with
their quaint stylo of talk, their uncouth way of feed-
ing, and the phenomenal cut of their garments, it is
more than likely that we should look askance at the
ancient worthies, and wish that some one would take
them out of sight and hearing, and see them quietly
hushed up. The phrase in her middis, that is to sav,
in their midst, occurs in the Apoloiji/ for Lollard Doc-
IrtMS ', a work written by one of Wicliffe's contempo-
raries, if not by Wicliffe himself^ That in their
' Leelurei on tie EnffHih Langwige, p. 396, foot-note. At p. 645,
he writes nf " the Tulfruriira nt auch plirnses as in diif ntidtt," See.
* P. 12. This work IB eilited by Dc. J. H. ToiR
' Mr. Mnrah tius Mua the trouble to aHerlain thxt tbc WidtlRts
tranelnlnrs nowhere me i;i tlicir midst, &c. ; nnd soma taaj ha dis-
po»d lo HMept this taut ns wuU Din;h availing, of itseir, tn aVijiLiiicitR
the ApoioffV far Lultard Daftri«e» from Wicliffe. At p. 74 nf Ibe
Apaiagj/, wo find "by (PW occiKion ",— nwauvng 'li'j wicwMiii of
50 CHAPTER III.
mills/, ill our miihf, &c. are at odds with the " genius "
of our language is an assertion somewhat adventurous.
As concerns a substantire, its subjective genitive, uni-
versally, and its objective genitive, very often, may
be expressed prepositive] y. Love of God, intending
' love emanating from God,' may be exchanged for
God's love,- but we also say Plato's commentators and
t/ie icorld's end. To come to possessive pronouns, we
have no scruples about the objective do hk plcamire,
Bing thy praise, in my absence, on your necount, fn their
diwredit, in our despite, fits equal, &c. &c. ; '■ and with
these phrases in our midst is rigidly comparable.
" The possessive pronoun cannot be properly applied,
whom', — wliioli is Wicliffite ; but ean we belitire that "Wicliffo himself
could derivo pn'ril from pntrete ? For Dr. Todd preily olearly ahows,
at p. 119, that it is so di:riTad by the Apoln^st.
And thie reniiods ma of an etymology if pretbyter, given, by Kenri
Bstirnnp, f^m Ibe Stflla Clfricorum, " I'reshyter dicltar quasi pne-
bens iter ", an amendment to which was waggiably proposed, by lome
one, in " I'reshytar, qoaai pna aliis biheiia ter." Of the same stamp,
at least suivntiSodly uoiiaideri<d, is the analysis of diaialm, adopted by
OliTier Maillard, and doubtfully crmlited to Hugo Cairensia : " Dia-
boliia, ei dia, quod est duo, et bolus, id ait, moreellas ; quasi faeiens
duos boloe de oorpore el anima." Apnlogie pour Serodoli (ISSS), Vol.
2, pp. 12-44 (ed. 1735).
' " There was notbyng mijlit content her but his pregeaai and twmtt
light'' Bamabe Riebe, Fareicelt, &e,, p. 6fl.
" After so many dayus spent iu hfe tontinwiU mnMriafrnij, he re-
mained in the same atsts ns hu did tho vary first day, neither batter
nnr worse," Mabbe. The Ra^iie, Part 1, p. 76.
This we should not say now ; and yet in her eomp/niy would itriite
no one as being odd.
" We intermeddle not vith hfr d/ieriptioH. as she was a sovereign
prince too high", Ac. Fuller, The Holy Stale, See. (ad. 18*1), p. 2B3.
" Go, my anuel, said Mr, Clinton, and take yonder seat, that I may
Tiew and delight my snul with i/aur tight, at leisure." Henry Brooke,
Thi Foul 0/ Q-mlili, [Bd. 1792). Vol. 6, p. 246.
" Forgotten he was not ; fat his proKciiCion ■was noi ordered.'' Dr,
JohnaoB, Ziji ef Mi/tim.
DJTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 51
except as indicative of possession or appurtenance,"
is the rule laid down by Mr. Marsh, seemingly in
forgetfulness of the familiar modes of speech just
specified. With reference to analogical principles,
in our midst is altogether irreproachable ; and, in
future, if any one dislikes it, he will do prudently, if
he does no more than pass by on the other side, and
leave it to itself.
"Did you see The Examiner on Mrs. Stowe's Sunny
Memories ? Quite a severe article ; and quite unnecessarily
80, 1 should say. The use of quite is a peculiarity which
I quite remarked, myself ;. but I think you have quite a
right to use it, as a substitute, if you please, for our less
exact * very * ; and, in colloquial writing, no one ought to
object. I don't see that the old-country English are to
have the exclusive right of introducing new expressions."
Thus wrote Mr. Arthur Hugh Clough,^ though
the uses of quite which he exemplifies, — save, perhaps,
in the -phvaae' 'Iquite remarked,^^ ^ — ^have been English
for considerably upwards of a hundred years.^ Nor
* Poems and Prose Remains (1869), Vol. 1, p. 219.
* "Who would say "I quite remarked", whether to intend *I par-
tieularly remarked', or anything else } Possibly, some of the writers,
all of them English, quoted in the next note. According to Mr.
Clough, " I quite remarked " is for * I very remarked *, which is no-
thing. And is " quite a right " for *■ very a right' ?
3 " 'T is become quite reputable." Gay, The Distressed Wife, Act
3, Scene 8.
" And you say they are quite loving ? " Carey, The Sanest York-
shireman (1736), Act 2, Scene 7.
" Quite a rake.'* Richardson, Pamela (ed. 1811), Vol. 1, p. 86.
" But he is quite displeased, it seems." /<?., Clarissa Sarlowe (ed.
1811), Vol. 4, p. 206,
** They want for nothing, and are grown quite religious." Id.^
Sir Charles Grandison (ed. 1811), Vol. 6, p. 7.10.
CHAPTER III.
is quile, in any of his instances, exactly equivalent,
as he intimates it ia, to ' very '. As to " quite a severe
" With rBgiird to his ituoeo-worlt within doora, he is guiii eitrava-
' gunt." " Quits impatient to ooaTersB with jou." Bhenstone, Lettsrt,
" 14 and 107.
B make mo guilt angry." Johnson,
" ThESB
The Seiailer, Ni
The font ncit eitraeta were written in 1746, 1754, 1766, and 1774-
"I nm quUe iateraated tn the fate of yonr favourita trues," &c.
Miaa Talbot, Misi fjartei's LelUra la Mini Talbvl, &o.. Vol. 1, p. 109,
"To wish anjbodj a merry Chrbtmas, in the old phtau, would be
iuite nn ahaurdity." Id., ibid.. Vol. 2, p. 189.
" Mare throws guila a Instre on 'the waves." Miss Darter,
ibid.. Vol. 3, p. SHI).
quite an age that I have defsiTed it." Id., ibid..
f Vol. 4
p. 107.
"I jHiVe longed for you to share my adniiration of it." " Th*re
I will bd gwile h knot of nobiliCj' in the noighboiirliDod tbis autumn."
] Id., Liltert lo Mrs. MinUa^u, Vol. 2, p. 67 ; Vol. 3, p. 168. Also
le Vol. 1, pp. 74, 106, 314 ; Vol. 2, pp. 34, 203 ; Vol. 3, pp. 219,
£21, 22S.
"It WHS 7Wi?B early." Edward Mooro, Ths Wm-ld, No. 97.
Lady Echlin wrote, in 1737; "The Utile wonder was guilt anew
wene to him." Contipondrnci o/ SaMiiel HiehardMii, Vol. 6, p. 79.
■iHerB, ns in several of my eitracts, gaile is for ' oltogetber '. Its col-
^locatioo is, however, neoteric.
" He left me guile pleased with the interest he seemed to take in my
ooenis." Goldamith, Tht Vicar of WukeS'ld, Cb. 21,
" I am qiiitt impatient," &.a. " I am guHt proud that," jbe. " I
emed quite lightaomo In myself." "Quite an adept." Henry
LBMoke,ia<--fW8/Qi(nH<y(cd- 1792), Vol. 2, pp. 65, 244; Vol. 4,
}. 2S, 122,
" Here, agsin, yon are gaitt scandalized at the Bishop's parndoiicat
sertiona coneeraing the naturu and end of eloquence." Bishop
nrd, in Trafti by IFariurlan, Sec, p. 263.
" Dr. Wharton wonld be quite happy to see you at Old Park."
lOray, Corretpin'denee of Ornji and Jfafin (ed. 1855), p, 341.
ni gHite pliaaed with Your Lordship's pliui." Edmund Borte,
WCnrTeipondetiee, &C., Vol. I, p. 160.
" If you bring your neighbour, the Thames, with yon, it will be
HiV« agreeable." Id,, The Private OorretpaniUiKe of IJatid Garrici,
. Vol. J, p. J 88.
I
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 53
article ", it is not very long ago that such a colloca-
tion of words, to mean what it means above, was
"I lived near a fortnight in the house, quite agreeably." Graves,
The Spiritual Quixote (ed. 1820), Vol. 1, p. 124.
" He was quite melancholy till he received Mrs. Sarsanet's letter."
Jd,, ibid., Vol. 1, p. 136.
'* His spleen against the Chevalier is quite entertaining." Colman,
The Private Correspondence of David Garriek, &c., Vol. 1, p. 233.
** My mother's dislike to going out makes her quite ingenious to
find reasons to avoid rides." ** She seems quite melancholy." Miss
Wilkes, Correspondence of the late John Wilkes, &c. (1805), Vol. 4, pp.
289, 290.
'* I gave such a monstrous scream, that it quite made Mr. Meadows
start." Miss Bumey, Cecilia, Book 2, Ch. 4.
*^ Besides, you are so good and so gentle, that it quite composes me
to talk with you." Id,, ibid., Book 3, Ch. 8.
" She's well enough, .... but shy, quite too shy." Id., ibid.. Book
4, Ch. 2.
" I assure you you would quite have fallen in love with him." Id.,
ibid,. Book 6, Ch. 2.
" Really, going to Mr. Harrel's again would have been quite too
dismal." Id., ibid.. Book 6, Ch. 10.
" I am quite angry with Pitt." Gibbon, Miscellaneous Works (ed.
1814), Vol. 1, p. 321.
"I am quite surprised at Johnson's diligence." "He \s quite ^
gentleman, and a very sensible one." " The chamber is better, and
quite smart." • " I am quite oppressed by it " [this hot weather].
Cowper, Works (ed. Southey, 1835—1837), Vol. 4, p. 102 ; Vol. 5, pp.
193, 295 ; Vol. 6, p. 163.
"The gallery immediately before its entrance appeared quite gay."
Beckford, Italy, &c. (ed. 1834), Vol. 1, p. 326.
" He was quite uneasy at the pleasure I felt," &c. Uvedale Price,
An Essay on the Picturesque, &c., p. 167, foot-note.
** There was a mill in this vale, quite a comfortable dwelling."
Selections from the Letters of Robert Southey, Vol. 1, p. 84.
" It was quite a comfort to me." Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 490.
" We are quite astonished," &c. Sydney Smith, Works (one-vol.
ed., London, 1850), p. 174.
** The thought . . . makes me quite dread the return of the Sunday."
" It quite disturbs me to think of it." " The vale of Florence looks
quite poor and dull," &c. Dr. Arnold, Life and Correspondence (ed.
1856), pp. 46, 54, 61.
I
I
I
:nown. There, as in some other poaitioiiB, quite
n holdsj ia signification, a place intermediate be-
tween ' altogether ' and ' somewhat '.' The French
assez and the Italian assai have a similar acceptation.
In the third edition of Professor Maximilian
MnUer'a Lectures on the Science of Laiiguage? we aro
nformed that, " in fact, ' very pleased ' and ' very
delighted' are American isms which may be heard
even in this country ". A lamentable state of things,
this, no doubt ; only the implied disdain of America,
■which ^^ould be sufficiently censurable, if hereditary,
!ng only imitative and conciliatory, still more
censnrable, not to say unphilosophic. The phrases
Just named become, however, in Professor Miiller's
fourth edition,' simply " expressions which may be
'• He really looks quite concerned." Landor, Worhi, Vol. 3. p. *17-
N" Eonestj, in France, puts on a demi-Baison guile farly, but Boon
ds it tflo cold for wear." "A wolf . who wua jii rts olinnning,"
., The Last Fruit of an Old Trei, pp. 15, 230.
" Quill a demoorat." " Quilt amusing." I,ord Maoanlay, Critical
and HiUerical Eisayi (Sth Engliab lidilian, 1848), Vol. 2, p. 88 ; Vol.
^yheII it cnine to be bed-time, nhe .... vaa, reallj, i/iiilt aorr; to
go to bed, and aqueeied Arthur's hnud guilt fondly." Mr. Ttiackei'ay,
FtndmHis, ObnpierSi.
It ia, I tuipect, to the Indies timl ire are indebted, originully, for
iB uses of quitt here exemplified.
' Take the third quotation givun in tbe preceding note : and quite,
x it obssrted; hM not there a negative before it. In9te]id of ■' qaile a
Uke", the old English expression waa ' a great ruke', which do<n not
u- us ' altogether a rake ', or ' a porfcct ruke '. Such n quite a
waj, generally, he eichanged for a great, much of a, or for wmBthing
leu iatcnuve ttisn a compklt, a full, a thorough, or tho like, Quilt,
SB, for instance, in Bichardson's " quitt displeued '', also imports less
than 'entirely', 'thoroughly', 'fully'. Very mueh may, in some
eases, represeut iia force ; in other easel, very.
of tha English ciilcmies, tao is ttrungely used for ' very ",
i', 'quiti;". ' Vol, 1, p. 39. ' Vol. 1, p. 40.
^^^^^^^M INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY.
heard in many drawing-rooms.'* That they should
be felt to deserve promotion from, it might be,
Whitechapel or tho Seven Dials, to decent society,
as aoon as they were discovered not to bear the brand
of Americanism, was, all things considered, only to
be expected. They are heard, we are told, "in many
drawing-rooms." And there they were heard, with-
out question, four or five generations ago. Sir Wil-
liam Jones' wrote "vtnj eoncerned," in 1760; and
Gibbon,* " eery unqualiiied," in 1762.
Leaving imaginary Americanisms', I return, for
' Mimoiri, Ac. (cd. 1806), p. 22.
» Maeillatmia Worts [ed. 1814), Vol. 4, p. 113.
Miu Cartor wrota. in 1778: •■ 1 thank Hull mj mind is leiy Cora-
poacd." Zellcri to Misa Tfilbot, &a.. Vol. *, p. 197.
Thomus Tnylor wormed out eomething " very concealed," in 1701.
See bis tranalutiutL of Favmnias, Vol. 3, p. SOO.
" r«y altered." Sydney Smitli, Wnrki, p. 639.
"A Teiy eeneeaUd niannor." Mr. De Quintey, Works, Vol. 6,
Preface, p. ivi.
" They were very frightened." Dr. G. W. Doaent, 2'optilar Taloa
from th» Noru (ed. 1859), p. 409. I will udd, llint 1 bavo heard I'ro-
fenor Uiillei dedare tbu En^liah of Dr. Busent to be tho purest ever
No len di>QonIant than vtry hefure any participle not thoroughly
adjeotivieed, like animeted ox pleaaitig, is much halma tJie poEitive de-
gree of an ftdjectivB which has not grown ont of a past participle.
"JTwAhencflciul" is used by Fuller. The Iliitoris of tha Mtly Watre
(ed. 16*7), p. 171- Jeremy Coliier lius "very much impertiufnt."
A Sherl Vitm, &a. (ed. 169S), p. 167. Addisun wtiteB " rery niuth
eonreruint," The SpMialor, So. 600. "AtWestmiiiBter Schuull waa
much intimate with Walter Bagot." Cowpcr, Warie, Vol. 6, p. 186.
Id Tie Tails, IV., 433, and V., 816, Cowpar has " much solicitouB"
and " nmeh conversant " ; and, in bis Hiiiil, I., IIO, " muoh uumeet."
Wbere, in soch phrases, ' nut ' is pruhxed, theic unidiormitii:alne« ii,
here and there, aomewhat mitigated.
li'or, for obvious reasima, thuugb wo say 'aecrg flowing style ', do we
«y ■ f wry flawing stream ', or, with Addison, '■ a miiit crying dul-
nesB," "a tern ehining light." See Tht Spcctalor, Xos. 61 ajid 63.
1 We have had to do witli Angiidams precipitately adjudged to he
illustration of the topic under treatment, to false
criticisms on words and phrases of a more general
character,
"In certain new Tjooka we find wended. There is, pro-
Americanisma. A fla^sat example of miEcarriage, intryiopitoiliift the
burthen of a neotcrism from America to England maj bere fitl^ be
Dr. Webeter's editors, after quoting, in illnstration of lengthy, a
passage credited to "Gibhoa, 1TG3", epealc of it as Affording "the
earliest knovn instance" of the vord'e occurrence. The passage is
(roia one of the jonraals iept by the hisloriaji ; these, in 1763, he
kept in French ; and they are printed in their original form. It it
from the English translation of these joarnala tliat Dr. Webster's
editors Dnnittingly take their quotation; and this translation, anon-
ymous, and probably the work of a bookseller's hack, was llrst pub-
lished in the monatome edition □{ Gibbon's MiiccUaneeui Weria, in
1937. the passage in question will bo found there at p. TS.
Mr. Samuel Bailey, in his JJismwrMj on Varioui Suifao's, p. 76,
after nelcuming lengthy, an a recent American import worth the hav-
ing, goes on to remark, that " It could bare sprung up nowhere but
in a coantry addicted to pratractcd oratory, and is a modem instance
of what forms a fui^cinating feature in the study of etymology, namely,
the power of words to indicate the habits and customs of those who
If Dr. Webster's editors had been in the right, ground would
hme been offered for the comment on Mr. Bailey, that, unhappily
fur his pretty little argument, lengthy bad already been used in
Englund in the time of the American colonists, who are not known to
hare been specially addicted to oratory, protracted or olherwiae.
And, after all, as the word originated, so far as is known, in the
days of Washington, who uses it, one may still justly object to Mr.
Bailey's asseuinting it with American loogiloqnenee in oratory, ■
feature of the present century. Moreover, can It he proved that the
epithet was ever applied to spoken discourses any more freely thsn to
written ? Aud, since /oagroine was ones employed in the sense nhicb
it bcBts,— for Bp. Hal! tella of a " langtome treatise ",— why suppose
that the modem Americans are more tedious in expeeition than their
English anecstorB weref Finally, that Englishmen found as much
Hope for the word at home as Americana found for it amnn^ them-
lelves ii evinced by the facts, that they were not slow to adopt it, and
that it now meets with disfavour from none but the most finical
purists. It must be admitted, howerer, thiit to give the t
-^ a BsparagiBg import lutlta [ho support of analogy.
INTUITIVE rHILOLOGY,
', no Bucli word : Spenser has coined it unlawfully.
t is the preterite of tBend, as lent of lend, spent ' of
tpend, bent of bend ".
Such ia the opinion which Landor ^ puts into the
mouth of Home Tooke ; and lie feigns lip. Parker
to have said to Andrew Marvel :
"I liave seen fantastical folks . . , who write ipewl,
insteail of 170, and are so ignorant of grammar as even to
put icended for ment ".*
The Eev. Mr. Blackley writes, to the same effect ;
" ' To wend one's way' ia a perl'ectly correct expression ;
but the stilted style of novel-writing, now happily upon
the wane, exhibits many instances of the inaccurate form
'he wended his way ', caused by the writer's ignorance of
J the fact that went, which we use as the irregular preterite
I of the verb ' to go ', ia, in fact, the regular preterite of
the verb ' to wend '." *
All thia is very loose and uncritical, and even
vorse. It 18 by such lessons as these that the un-
reflecting and uninquiring are misled into eschew-
' Apparently, not even in Chaucet'e tiron did people yet aaj tpenft
or ipml, but upeiide; and yet tbey said rente, the older form being
rtBd0. Accepting tjmil, and ignoring the fact that we got maid,
througll tfac French, from the Lutin, landor wril«s, in hia usual arbi-
torj fashion : "1 ha»B obserredifni, bs preterite of roirf.- improper;
«»iwk( wouldbeofinmrf." Tin Laat Fruit of an Old Tret, p. 109.
Since hoth ipaid snd mtiid are traceable ta the Latin, ha should, in
I coluiMencj, haco contended fui mml, on the model o( tpent; and
n the analogj of vient, ought to have been unobjectionable
I tu him. Did be demnnd reiided > Of this X have lighted on one in.
" With thia, the grate fenerahle bishop, giving me his bene-
I dictiun, fvtiJht such a si)"h that would have rended a rock asunder ", io,
\ Jamen IIoMfell. T<eeli-i Serrral Trcatix,, &c. {1001), p. 331.
• fF-rlti. Vol. 1, p. 194. a Ji,rf,_ Vol. 2, p. 100.
• Woi-d Gituipjp. 111.
CHAPTER UI.
ing, as if they were wrong, words and phrases which
are perfectly right. "VVTio will venture to say that
iceiti is, to ua, the preterite of trend t And, now that
icend has become an independent verb, why may we
not inflect it ? If to irend one's way ' and ' He tcends
his way ' are good English, equally so ia " he wended
Lis way ".'
But let us dwell a Httle longer on the word so
peremptorily dismissed as unbearable. In old Eng-
lish therewastbepresentwe«(ffiorjce«(, 'go', 'turn',
the preterite of which came to be — as spende became
spent, — icende, ' went ' ; and the past participle, vent,
wend, 'gone', 'turned'. The present, modernized
into uend, dropped out of ordinary and untechnical
prose ; but the preterite, irent, has come down to us.
That wend and jce»<'were ever contemporaneously
' Wend, aa a rtfleiiTe verti, oecara io James Hnyward, The Ban-
itli'd Virgin (1633), p. 163.
* Of went, 08 the purtitipBa of wend, ' go ', I have met with una
old inBtance. "And yt wyll be somewhat the mora hnrda, bycansa
that, vhere as men wolde have Kent goneste to have founde them ", &c.
8ir Thomas Mora, Apologue {1533), tol. 2S6.
But it seems almost incredible thrtt a iting^ate of the Church of
England could write, in the kat century ; " Whother Mr. Wesley has
not Kent to bed since that Idnie, othecB may know ss well aa timeelf".
Bp. LsTingbm, Enthuiiaam of MelhodiiU and FapMt Compared (ed.
163S], p. 22.
At p. 119 ol the game wort oceurB"qnite o/len/y ", which is full
ss odd. Like ojlenlij are Imlflg, used by John HaUs (1666), in An
Hiitiiriall KcpoMu/iirion, &c., p. 39 (ed. 1B44), and nexlly, foond in
Queilieiii of Fmjilabli and Fleasaal Doncemingi (1594). foL 17 V.
A fflat« for Bp. Latinglon's tceiit is sfTorded by Imibo Burrow.
'.' What men ever upon earth haie been mora aoraly alBicled, have
underwent Rreater luBses, disgraoeB, lahonra, trouble*, distressrs in any
kind, than did tho H. Apostlee P" IVorkt (ed, 1683- 1892), Vol. 1. p. 19.
"It rccommendeth to ni the niamples of thnsc who haie uiideiKtnt
unspeakable pains ", Ac. Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 2Ud.
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 59
used as equivalent to our ' go ' and ' went ', is more
easily intimated than proved. Went being settled
in its present signification, it was necessary, to bring
out, unambiguously, the sense intended by a pre-
terite of tcend, to coin wended,^ For the rest, Landor
would, assuredly, have been nonplussed, if asked
what he meant by saying that " there is, properly,
no such word " as wended. Of the proper existence
of a word his ideas must have been most peculiar.
And why might not Spenser try his hand at coining
a word ? ^ Landor himself has ventured new coin-
* "We have, similarly, grafted^ from graffed, grafts formerly the
preterite of graff; hoisted^ from hoised, hoist^ formerly the preterite of
Jioiae ; and wafted, from waffedy waft, formerly the preterite of waff
(i. «., wave) ; and we once had mifted, from sniffed, snifty the pre-
terite of sniff. Possibly, snort and the old swound sprang from snored
and swooned. With these compare the vulgar drownded. The old
verbs elad — used by Puttenham, Philemon Holland, and Ed. iDacres, —
and fraught are not from clothe and freight. The origin of the verb
girt, from gird, is doubtful, as to its mode. The d of an infinitive
may have been changed io t ; a preterite may have become an infini-
tive ; or a substantive may have been converted into a verb. The
verb rifty like the verb weight, came from a substantive. In very
modem writings I have repeatedly seen the participle saddened, which
assumes the existence of a verb sodden. It should not much surprise
us, if this sodden were to take the place, in time, of the obsolete
seethe. Fuller has unshakened, in The Appeal, &c., Part 1, p. 49.
* Wended, we are told by Landor, as if endowed with omniscience,
" Spenser has coined ", &c. Let us see whether Spenser had not
predecessors in the use of it.
" Thenne fhe squier weyndut upon his way,
And to the marchand conne he say ;
His emde told he thenne ".
Sir Amadace, st. 20.
" These three men wended at their will,
This felon sow qwhyl they came tyll,
Liggand under a tree ".
The Felon Sowe and the Freeres of Hichmonde, st. 6.
For these two passages, see Three Early English Metrical Romances^
&c. (1842), pp. 35, 106.
agea enough. And vrhat would he hare had Bishop
Parker onderatand by icend, if not ' go ' ?
" It disturbs me to find, in Soulhey, . . the word fe-
wrile, I had (Jionght it, and reread, the spawn infect-
ing a mnddier and shallower water. Properly, re should
precede none but worda of Latiu origin,' though there
are a few exceptions of some date and authority ".
Landor is here again quoted ; * and it is manifest
that the great Latinist and patron of regicide was
easily robbed of his equanimity. The "few excep-
tions " which he alludes to we are to discover as beat
we can. By an unsparing application of his tyranni-
cal canon, we should be deprived of many a good word
which we could ill dispense with, aa rebind, rebuff, re-
build, rebuke, recaul, recoin, refill, rejit, refresh, regard,
reland, relight, remake, remotild,resell, retail, review, and
reicard, to name no more. It is curious how common
it is for writers to prescribe strait-jackets to them-
selves and others. Landor, as we have seen, had a hor-
ror of hybridism; aa if our language was not crowded
wilh hybrids. And such a horror had William
Taylor, too, — a succulent quarry for any one minded
to hawk at verbal eccentricities, — as witness his
eoecalit;/, continualit>/, graduaUly, habitunlily, purent-
(iliii/, soliliiriii/, sonoronitij, vir/uosili/, toluntarity. Had
he been more thorough- going than he was, he ought
to have insisted, — taking a handle from deerepitude,
■ Landor, us I need not t«ll tbose who kaov hia wrilings well,
would not BO designate it word duriced to lu from the Ladn, but
Ihioagh Ihs French.
* Waller Saragi Liindor, a Biopnphij, Vol. 2, pp. 525, 526,
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 61
desuetude, exadUude, infinUiide, and promptitude, — on
abjectitude, ahruptitude, directitude, distinctitude, select-
itude, strictitude, and succinctitude} If English were
to be beggared and deformed throughout on prin-
ciples like those by which Landor and Taylor would
have controlled it, the result would be a thing at
which they themselves would have sickened as
heartily as their neighbours.
In the rough language of Landor,^ " to talk about
* He should have preferred largeityj too, Thomas Nash's tardity,
and, with Puttenham and Camden, grandity.
* Walter Savage Landor, a Biography, Vol. 2, p. 528. Landor also
makes Dr. Johnson say to Home Tooke : ** Within the last year or two,
I have heard the expression *■ a man of talent \ instead of ' a man of
talents*." Works, Vol. 1, p. 165.
A similarly hasty criticism hy Landor is here subjoined.
** Tooke, "What an outcry would be raised against you or me, if we
applied a verb in the singular to several nouns !
** Johnson, And justly.
" Tooke. Yet eloquence sometimes requires it, even in our own lan-
guage. The Italian has not repudiated it." Id., Vol. 1, p. 210.
Johnson would never have assented to Tooke' s remark, as he is fabled
to have done.
" The qtierulousness and indignation which is observed so often to
disfigure the last scene of life, naturally leads us to inquiries like these.'*
The Rambler, No. 50.
" Nor has the roughness and brutality of more savage countries ever
provoked," &c. The Idler, No. 87.
" What has disease, deformity, and filth, upon which the thoughts
can be allowed to dwell ? " Life of Swift.
" Such order and connexion . was not perceived by Addison." Life
of Fope.
" The oak and the thorn is equally a stranger," &c. A Journey,
&c., Aberbrothick.
And Johnson's predecessors and successors often write in the same
way.
" Abstinence and mortification has formerly been thought necessary
for the security of virtue. J eremy Collier, A Short View, &c. (ed.
1730), p. 423.
62
a ' man of talent ' \s to talk like a fool " ; and, in the
judgment of Archbishop Trench, this phrase 13
"nonsense."' These hasty verdicts are grounded,
" Hiti iars ani regard for our Constitutioii t'l so reiimikable," ita.
Aiidiaon, The Fraholdtr, No. 46.
"^I'/iflwi ojoiw i'» bis darling liqnor." Cowper, The Ciinnoiaeur,
No, 111.
" COnvti'KilioH OMif fireside soriety i> llmoat quite lost among us."
Colmiin, Frost on Several Oecan'om, &c., Vol. 2, p. 81.
" The Atrmoiiy and trae miH/vlalim 0! rerae depeade apon a perfect
prmmnciniion," &fi. Bishop Lowth, laaiah (ed. 1778), I'loliminury
MswrtBtioii, p. riii.
" ICo rcgnnuig enn, no consuming torrtmi, no dazzling fear iuhabite
tliero.'" Id., Smmtie end Other £einaitu, p. 271.
" Wbivt i. iirtk atid dialh ? " Shi'lley, Etna!/!, &c., Vol. I, p, 225.
" In histoTj, the here mid the politician duitidlce into a vain and
fteWe tyrant.'' Lord Macoulny, MiiaUaneota Writings (ed. 1860),
Vol. 2. p. 89.
"Theypi'int to tba flying duet, llie falling brieltB, the oumfortlcra
rnoma, tlie frigbttiil irrcgularit]' of llie wliole appearance, and tlion ault,
in iDom, nbere tbo promised qi^'ni/oi'inniJ comJ'Brt it to lie found.''
Id., £iae</ BU Miltnii.
Sitniliti' pneangos miglit be quotvd from our older inilerB, by tbo
myriad. Nuy, Khere the verb came first, it was tbe rule to put it in
tbs liiiKalar. "Heere in met couragi and conelaiiei/." Feltbam,
KcKlvte, &c. (ed. \B2i), FirBt Centorie, p. 13. So wrote hundreds,
hefiira and after Feltbam. And who, even now, would not write, with
Lord Maoaulny, " ETarynbere else tran tAe thunder, and thi JSre run-
ning along tbo ground," &c. P Speechn (ed. 18S4), p. 607.'
Laudor, 1 am coDTinced, was neither sn extensile nor a carelnl
reader of our literature. Sometimes, indeed, his verbal criticisms are
worth weighing ; bnt, in large part, they are Founded on mere whim.
Fur instance, he eonld not bear the verb impugn. Sonthey — Seleeiietit
fnm the Lttlir*, &c., Tel, 4, p. ZS3, — aft^r showing, from Johnson'a
J)i"e(iniinry, bow thoroughly respectable it is, adds: "We have tlis
word, not from the French, but from the Normans, who, hj the cbauge
which they produced in our langnage, nverpaid this country for all tbo
eiila whiflb tbey brought upon it by the Conijueat. A word of Norman
extraction must not be ejpelled under the Ali™ Ael."
The absnrdust, perhaps, of all Lander's pbiTolngieal specalaliotu is
the following, fie dtiously assigned to Home Tooke; " While is ' the
ftWwben'; irAiVei, 'the (.mM when '." Worhe, Vol. 1, p. 150.
' Oi /.** Siudg ef JTordi (eJ. 1859), ^. 6fl. In another work I
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 63
evidently, on the assumption, — contestable, at best,
— that our familiar employment of talent is historic-
have cited Archbishop Trench's estimate of Mr. De Quincey, as " the
greatest living master of our English tongue." Mr. De Quincey, in
his WorkSy Vol. 6, p. 168, and elsewhere, uses, however, the expression
** man of talent." The Archbishop, therefore, if he knows what he is
saying, allows that a man may be a supereminent authority for Eng-
lish, and yet may write " nonsense ".
If the Archbishop's denunciation be just, taUnty whatever its context,
must, when put for * mental endowments *, be "nonsense ". As to its
age and good repute, in this sense, he is entirely in the dark.
" So silly a fellow, of no talent nor praiseworthie part in him in the
world." " Silly bodies and sorie fellowes of no talent, gift, or ability."
William "Watson, A Decacordon of Ten Quodlibeticall Questions (1602),
pp. 14, 336.
** Other poore rogues of lesse talent " Mabbe, The Rogm (1623),
Part 1, p. 193.
" And I cannot wonder enough, that none, all this while, .... have
not employed their talent to this taske," &c. Howell, Dodond'a Grove
(1640), p. 167.
" He got the reputation of a person of no ordinary talent*' Trans-
lation of J/ Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa (1670), p. 188.
Here talent is to render talento ; but, at pp. 163, 184, 310, where
the English has the singular, — " his talent,* &c., — the original has
talenti, the plural.
" If I had your talent or power to make my actions speak for me,"
&c. Steele, The Conscious LoverSy Act 3.
** Your talent may be universal : I believe it is." Lady Bradshaigh
(1749), in the Correspondence of Samuel Richardson^ Vol. 4, p. 259.
" There are those who will never suffer such talent as yours to be
long hid under a bushel." Mrs. Susannah Maria Gibber (1765), in the
Private Correspondence of David Garrick, &c., Vol. 1, p. 201.
** Nay, a good author possesses a versatility of talent,** &c. Colman
(1775), The Gentleman, No. 6.
Coleridge, in 1809, speaks of talent as being " a gift so unequally
dispensed by nature ", &c., and uses the expression ** the aristocracy of
talent** Essays on His Own Times, p. 655.
He also writes : " Shakespearfi is the height, breadth, and depth of
genius ; Beaumont and Fletcher, the excellent mechanism, in juxta-
position and succession, of talent.** Notes and Lectures upon Shake-
speare, &c.. Vol. 1, p. 317. Also see Vol. 1, p. 192 ; Vol. 2, p. 306.
See, further, on genius and talent, Coleridge's Biographia Literaria,
Ch. 2.
CHAPTER III.
ally connected with the iaknls of the parable.'
Though we fully acceded to that asHumption, still, as
" So many youths of distinguished talent," &c. Southey, Caieper'i
B^oi-i., Vol. 2. p. 71.
" All the real taltnl and resalution in England." Mr. Rualiin, T/ie
Snen Lampi of Archilatmi, p. 1S9,
In 17T3| Horace Wslpole used the phrase "this mine of talent",
which waa deolared to be "obsolete''. See Oray't Worhi («d.
Mitford. 1868), Vul. 4, p. 218.
Other qnotations, old aitd new, foi talent are giren in notes follow-
ing.
' For some cnnsidGrahle time, laltiito, S:c.^lhough "a buo lalnilo "
still means -at hiip/eiwurB', — hava been need, by lie Italians, French,
and others, just bb we now use talent. Onco these words ware ahBiirdly
derived, as by Manage and etymologists of his school, from BiXuv,
" it quoi repugne la fonne du mot", to quote the obvious critjeiein nf
M. Li[tr6. HiUoire de la Lanyue Frantaue (ed. 1863), Vol. 1, p. 7-
Eyen BO late a lesicographer as M. Raynouani derives Calenl after
this exploded fashion. Lexi^ue Jiotnan (1836—41), VuL 6, p. 296.
Id the same work. Vol. 3, p. 41, the Bomance dia, ' day ', {9, atsa,
wildly deduced from the Greek. Quoting frnni Macrobins the words
" Cretonsea Aia rr))' tuiipav Tocant", M. Raynouard takes A/a to
be a feminine nominative, not an accusative masculine. Though
grammar tolerated a nomlualiie Ha in the clause just quoted, ruid
though the word were a feminine, still it would be more prudent to
suppose dia to be corrupted from dia, than, in qnest of its source, to
leap over the I^tin to the Greek. M, HaynounrJ would have done
wiaety, if, as regarded accounting far tnlenl and dia, he had adhered to
his own very sensible principle, Inid down in Vol. 1, p. ixvii. : " Je
n'si eu reoours au grec, pour eipliqurr I'origine d'un mot, qu'i de-
fiiut de toutc autre langue moins ancieiine d'oi) je ne pnuvais le faire
deriver. par In rai^on qu'cn fait d'ctymolo^e, e'est geo^ralement la
[ilua proche qui aide Ic micui ft foire connallre le sens primitif dcs
Duoange quotes, from the will of Stephania, Queen of NaTarre,
the following passage, written in 1098 : " Igilur si venerit ad aliquant
de mens filias in taUntiim Deo servire", &c. Here lnlrnlma moans
'desire'. I do not find that the patriitic writers used either ToKavrov
or talmtam metaphorically.
Tatenl signifies, in Chaucer's tmnslaCion of Soethius, ftc, and in
Gower, Udall, Chapman, fie. &c,, 'will', ' inciinatiou ', 'affeotiou',
'appetite', 'earnest humour', 'passion'.
Some twenty or tiirty medieial deiivuti^ei of taUulum might here
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 65
soon as talents came to import ^ mental faculties, en-
dowments, or qualifications', there was no violence
be specified. To keep to English, talentif^ for ' desirous *, occurs in
Sir Oawayne and the Green Knight (ed. 1864), L 350. And Chaucer
uses the verh entalenten, for * excite *. Even in Sir Walter Scott's
novels, we find maltalenf, — once, * displeasure ', * anger*, — for *evil
inclination ', with talent, for * inclination ', 'purpose *.
M. Roquefort, after stating the value of the Attic talent, says :
" Le mot talent fut ensuite applique aux tresors du genie, aux con-
noissances, aux heureuses dispositions pour une science ou un art."
Dietionnaire ^tymologiqtte^ &c. (1829), Vol. 2, p. 428.
The old metaphorical meanings assigned, hy M. Haynouard, to
talent are "envie, desir, volonte, gout, penchant, disposition**.
Lexique Romany Vol. 5, p. 296.
Still later, M. Burguy has : '* Talent, talant, telant . . . talent
(monnaie) — desir, envie, volonte, gout, inclination de I'esprit, pro-
pension, disposition, resolution ; de talentuniy TaXavroVy halance, d'oCi
poids, trait, traction, attraction La signification aptitude,
habilite, qu*on attribua plus tard k talent^ se rapporte k la signification
primitive, somme, tresor, qu'on a sur soi." Grammaire de la Langtie
d'Oil, VoL 3, pp. 358, 359.
" Talent . . . proprement tre^r, richesse, puis, don de la nature,
g^nie.** M. Brachet, Dietionnaire ^tpfnologique, &c., p. 519.
As to several of the links in most of these evolutional chains, how-
ever, no attempt is made to show that they ever existed ; and, until
their existence shall be proved historically, the etymologists who de-
rised them are to be commended as ingenious, rather than as scientific.
The third signification which Dr. Johnson gives of talent is * quality,
disposition', which he calls "an improper and mistaken use ". Lord
Clarendon and Swift are quoted for it. But why were these uses — I
put the plural ; for they are not to be identified,—" improper and mis-
taken ** ? They were once very common ; and talent had, sometimes,
the meanings 'characteristic*, 'specialty*, 'habit*, &c., also. For
these several senses I subjoin extracts.
"To prove how they would use their talent of natural light'*, &c.
Barrow, JForks, Vol. 2, p. 195.
" To every one some talent is committed, which, in subordination to
God's service, he may improve ", &c. Id., ibid., Vol. 3, p. 214.
" Aye, but that sort of knowledge is not a wife's talent.** Vanbrugh,
The Provoked Wife, Act I, Scene 1.
"Besides, 'tis my particular talent to ridicule folks." Id,, ibid,,
Act 2, Scene 2.
5
in speaking of a single such facultyj endowment, or
qualification, as a talent, or in the subsequent step,
" Lord "Rtike and Lord Fopliogton give you tlieir lalenl in their
tiHo." Jaremy Collier, A Short Ti'sw, Ac. (ed. 1730). p. 113.
" Hailing a a meiin and unchristian tatfnl." Id., ibid., p. 197,
I omit Eome twenty more like instances in CoUier.
" It 'i true, J. T. calls this an uapurdoaiible simDe ; but when, then,
vould he revive it ? It must certainly be (or no other reason hul Ifaat
he has a mind, as far as his iaktit will reach, to make clergymen of all
orders and denominations ridiculous." Remarks on the ' Zift iif Mr.
Mittoa', Sec. (ie99), p. 11.
"The most nec«esary talent, theroFore, in a man cf vonvereation,
ubicb is what ne ordinarily intend by a line gentlemnn, is a good
judgment." Steele, The Gnardinn, Ko. 21,
" It wit is to be measared by the circumstanoPB of lime and place,
there is no man has, gpUDrally, bo litUe of that lalenl as he who ia a
Tit by profession." Id., {bid., No. 29.
" I shall here add, that I know nothing so oiFeolual to raise a man's
fortune as complaisance, which recommends more to the faionr of the
great than wit, knowledge, or ajiy other talent whataoever." Addison,
The Guardian, No. 162.
"Ho enjoyed, ia the highest perfeotion, two talei'li which do not
often meet in the same person, — the neatest strength of good sense,
and (he most eicjuiaite taste oF politeniss." Id., The Frethalder,
No. 89.
" Mr, Wesley owns his talent of ejecting Satan." Bishop Lavingloii,
The Enthiaiama of Xethadiiti and Fapiiti Compared (ed. 1833),
'■ Pride i
118.
i, Pamela (ed. 18U), Vol. 1,
laleut bnt iU-natilre." Id.. ih!d., Vol. 3, p. 343.
" The raan-s talent is not taciturnity," Id., Hid., Vol. 4, p. 261.
"Mr. Pope's bodil^r disadvantages must incline Lim to a more
laborious oultiration of his talent, without wbieh ho foresaw that be
must have languished in obscurity." Sbcnstone, IFoiks (ed. 1764),
Vol. 2, p. 177.
*> Tet what shall we say for those churlish malecontents who pro-
tend to write satire, with no other earthly talent for it than rank ma-
levolencB ? " Anon., The World, No. IBl.
Sterne says, regarding "the malignity and the festivity of wit":
" The one is a mere quickness nf apprehension, void of Immauity, and
ia 1 laieM of the Devil; the other", &c. Sermon 18.
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 67
transforming the concrete into the abstract, and
giving us talent. This was, however, only part of
" Why, you can't, sir, be a stranger to his prodigious skill in the
traveller's talent ? " Foote, The liar, Act 2, Scene 1.
" I am the more solicitous about it, because it relates to the only
taste we can call our own ; the only proof of our original talent
in matter of pleasure, — I mean, our skill in gardening." Gray,
JTorks, Vol. 4, p. 21.
" You are a lawyer, sir, and know better than I do, upon what par-
ticular occasions a talent for misrepresentation may be fairly exerted.'*
Letters of Junius^ No. 18.
" The talent of haranguing in private company is insupportable."
Bishop Home, Olla Podrida, No. 7.
" The Latin translation is so confused, that I should have wondered
if Martin, whose talent for the languages was none of the happiest,
had understood it.'* Porson, Letters to Mr. Archdeacon Travis^ p. 220.
** In his att£teks on Salmasius, and others more obscure, ne appears
to have mistaken his talent^ in supposing he was witty." Landor,
Works, Vol. 2, p. 173.
Some old exemplifications of the use of talent shall now be brought
forward.
" And, all thoughe I do neither dyspute nor expounde holy scrip-
ture, yet, in suche workes as I have and intende to sette forth, my
pore talent shall be, God willing, in suche wyse bestowed, that no
mannes conscience shalbe therwith offended." Sir Thomas Elyot,
The Image of Governance (ed. 1544), Preface, sig. a iii r.
" The poore talent of learnyng whiche god hath lent me." Ascham,
Toxophilus (1545), p. 140 (ed. 1868).
** That poore talente whyche god hath endued them wyth." Raphe
Robynson, Translation of Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1551), p. 15
(ed. 1869).
" Set your talents a worke." Gosson, The Schoole of Abuse (1579),
p. 52 (ed. 1868).
" I hartily thanke the author himselfe for using his pleasaunte and
witty talente yfith. so much discretion, and with so little harme," &c.
Anon. (1580), in Ancient Critical Essays^ &c.. Vol. 2 (1815), p. 258.
" If, in the knowledge of nature, thou hast learned, by songs, to
praise God, his justice, and heavenly providence, or, in moral know-
ledge, to commende the law, humane societe, the government of the
common-wealth, and therein to respect honor, not profit, hide not this
talent f but teach it others, and give thy selfe an example, unto them,
of well doing, and of profiting every one." The French Academie,
Part 1 (ed. 1589), pp. 352, 353.
the process to which we owe talent, aa now employ
Formerly, the word denoted ' apecitic or dietinctiT
'alertl, and na tfac pooreim
MabbR, The Rogwi (1621
" But 1 shall tp|| thoe, aceordiag to
of my underBlaading ehall give me lea'
Psrt'l. p. 123,
e having beatowed on yon a talent lat^r than that of ai
other Tomao," fie. James Hayward, TAe MnM'd f'irjin (168i
p. 16.
" On her, therefore, apent he all the laltiil of his hatred." Id
" Their tcarning, ; db any, consisU onlj in Bomv Buperndal lalmt a
preaching," &e. Chilli ngwoith, Wmks {eil 1742), p. 17.
A few reterenccB are subjoined for tliosB nho wish to
thoFDUghly tnM the anhject here conaidered. Biahop 8andersMl|!
Tweli-i Sn-mmi, &c. (1637}, p. lOB. Oataker, in Abil Sederin
(1651), p 625. Lord Preston, Translation of Bosthiwi (169£), p. 23<
MandeTilU, no Fabli of the Beri (ed. 1724), p. (S. Colcridg
JjMjn on Eii Own Timee. pp. IBl, 1S7, 1S9, 238, 240, 4S8, 401
736: Chureh and Stale, &o. (eJ, 1839), p. 402. Charles Laiol
Ftbm Warkt (ed. 1838), Vol. 3, p. 162. Wordawurth, Peeticat WVJ
(eiL 18*8), Vol. 3, p. 324.
It will have heen observed, from the eitracta given near the b
nlng of this note, that the French el^niologiste do not suppose tl
talent, a» now used, to he deduced from the parable of the lalmtt,
nor have I diacotared that the sense of 'ability' pven to taleulti
considered, by the Italians, to have such a history. That our conati
) of the parHhIe have helped brgely to popularize our tale
for ' ability ', is, 1 tbink, all that can be aisercod cuDfldeotly. T
raodieval modiflcations of (nim/uin— and even talenlum itself — mel
'desire', 'inclination', &c., between whieh and the aenae of th
classical original there ia no perceptible conneiion. The link hctwc
these senncB, assuming that there was one, is lost. My contention
that, in like manner, there prcbitbly was a nexus of denotation, — a
very likely it was not an elliptical metaphor,— intermediate to 'dcain
and 'ability', aa senses of talmto, &e. Our present sense of lali\
doM not appear, I believe, in our literature, before the days when w
laninia^e was undergoing copious e ri hm b as of translalioi
made into it from the Itulinn, and h re h milinritv of oi
ancestors with French, In these (tuag respectl ly, falrnto so
talent alroudj signiRed 'ability' ; ese gea. whence IT
I to have derivud this siimiflo develnprnpna
investigations, touching the point are to any fruith
reiult, l0 be pnwscuted.
[ nieiital endowmentB,' and waa intensified, as it now
is, by being made plural ; and then, from being de-
I finite, it became indefinite, and acquired the accepta-
I tion of ' general mental ondowmenta.' ' A man of
' talents ' would satisfy both Landor and Archbishop
Trench ; and 'a man of talent' would, likewise, satisfy
almost anybody else, as Burke,' Godwin,' "William
Taylor,* Ilazlitt,* Charlea Lamb,' Mr. De Quiuecy,"
I Lord Macaulay,' and Dr. Kewraan,' for instance.
The objection felt to the phrase ' man of talent ' seems
est on the notion, that the metaphor implied in
I it amounts to an intolerable catachreais. A person
influenced by this notion must, indeed, draw nice
distinctions, not to find ' man of talentu ', also, figura-
) live beyond endurance. At any rate, though ho
I might put up with 'a man of genuine talents', or
I with ' a Tasm of sterling talents', he ought, consistently,
L to reject such locutions as ' a man of versatile, or of
transcendent, talents ', and ' talents of a high order ' ;
since nummulary talents, however qualifiable, are not
"Men of talrni"
1765.
n A Letter
I inUiam Elliot, Eiq.,
a of (afc«(", see The Bngiiirer {1797), pp. 10, 31; tot
"men of taleai ", pp. 307. 364 ; for "penong o( talent", p. fil.
> "A genllemun of taUnt". Th« Annual Hn'itu'.Yol. 6 (B08)i
p. 268. ' CharaclfrUtui (ed. 1837), p. 134.
' The Letlert of Charb» lamb (ad. 1B37), Vol. 2, p. 34.
• Ww*., Vol. 7, p. 18 1 Vol. 15, p. IfiO; Set. &c. But ace, par-
ticularly, Mr. Da Qmnoey'a cluborata coulrsst between jeni'iM and
taUI. in Vul. o, pp. 27fi, 278.
' MifMaaeaw. tTritiiuf (London ad. of 18(10), Vol. 2, p. I""
ElMwhtre ha hiu "iniliwtrjr and lalinl", "rising talent ", "sufficient
ultKl ", " a greater displny at talmt ", " more taUi't ", &c.
* ApBtogia pro Vita Stui, p. 277: Lecluret and Et*ayt on Vm-
TrriilD SaiJ«el», pp. 22, IDS, 192, 341 : Estsyt Critical and Sistoriml
Vol 1, pp. 133, 153, 270; Vol. 2, p. 379.
to be qualified as either versatile, or franseetidrnf, or of
any order, high or low,' Here, once more, we have
profeBsed critics of English marking with reproba-
tion a mode of speech which, while legitimated by
the most obvious analogy, contfimporary usage uni-
versally sanctions.
Coleridge, borrowing, consciously or unconsciously,
from Dr. Johnson," is reported to have said :
" I regret to see that vi!e nnd barbarous vocable talented
stealing out of the newspapers into the leading reviews
and most respectable publications of the day. Why not
ehilUnged, farthivged, tenpenced, &c. 1 The formation of a
participle passive from a noun is a licence that nothing
hut a very peculiar felicity can excuse. If mere conveni-
ence is to justify such attempts upon the idiom, you can-
not stop till the language becomes, in the proper sense of
the word, oim-upt. Most of these pieces of slang come
from America." *
' "ThtMB whisperers who, not having sufflcient porta to pniliiA
tilde own taltnli", &e, Henry Earl ot MoonioutK Advcrtiieinmti
fmn Fm-nmiiti (ed. ie£6), p. 199.
"Xabli lelmli in wvetttl Boioncea." Id., iba., p. 244.
" I msan to be vaall; civil to female lalenl of all lorli." H. S.
Bhwidan, The J^itata Comspondenee of Iiatid Garriei, fto., Vol. 2,
p. 34S.
On the priaoiplos spolcen ot ia the text, theio looutioni are inad-
gtiuible.
Also aee the foot of p. 67, mpra, vhere, in the paaasge from Tit
Friath Aeadtmit, ona ia exhorted to (meh a talent.
* " There hat, of lata, iLrisea a practice of giving to adjectiTes de-
rived from eubstantiTCa the terminatioa of parliciplei ; such no * the
tnltured plain', 'the daiaiid bank': but I am eocry to see, in. the
lines of a iFholar like Gray, 'the honeyed spring'." Life nf Oray.
Mr. Mitford, in the preface to his edition of Gray'ii Wnrlit, qUDto»
(in admirable reply to thia, from Lord Grenrille's unpubliahed Suyai
Miirka. We are there Teminded that honiyed hna the sanction of
both Rlmkeapenre end Milloii. and that the anabgnua mellilut ia found
In CataUua, Ciaera, and Horace. ' Table-talk (cd. 133d), p. ITl.
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 71
Commenting, at an earlier date, on Southey's ex-
pression, "the mother's anguished shriek'', he re-
marks, to the same effect, as regards grammatical
principle :
'* Not English. A participle presupposes a verb. ^N'ow,
there is no such verb as * to anguish ' ; ergo, there can be
no such participle as anguished. To guard with jealous
care the purity of his native tongue, the sublime Dante
declares to be the first duty of a poet. It is this convic-
tion, more than any other, which actuates my severity to-
Towards America and Americans Coleridge's dispositions were not
of the most amicable.
In the second 'of Satyrane^a LetterSj which form part of the Bio-
graphia Literaria, he informs his readers, that " the proper antipode of
a gentleman is to be sought among the Anglo-American democrats."
Elsewhere he says : ** Speaking of America, it is, I believe, a fact,
yerified beyond doubt, that, some years ago, it was impossible to obtain
a copy of Ttie Newgate Calendar^ as they had all been bought up by
the Americans, — whether to suppress this blazon of their forefathers,
or to assist in their genealogical researches, I could never learn satis-
factorily." Letters J Conversations^ and Becollections of S . T. Coleridge
(1836), Vol. 2, p. 139.
Landor's estimate of Coleridge is : ** Never was love more imaginary
than his love of truth. Not only did he never embrace her, never bow
down to her and worship her, but he never looked her earnestly in the
face." The Last Fruit off an Old Tree, p. 336.
Day by day, the opinion is gaining ground, not only that Coleridge,
with all his ability, was the essence of conceit, but that he had few real
convictions on any jsubject. I know of no person, in the annals of
literature, that seems to have juggled more egregiously with his con-
science, and that has thrown more dust into the eyes of right reasun.
Talk and write he must ; and, not to break outright with Christian
society, there was nothing left for him but to spend his ingenuity in
elaborating equivocal quirks and mysterious subtilties. Church-of
Englandmen who think at all, whether high or broad, are alike pro-
foundly indebted to him. Anglican platitudinarians agree, as to him,
with most of the remainder of the world, fiut just so Sir Isaac New-
ton's cook and Sir Isaac himself were at unity concerning Ptolemy's
eccentrics and epicycles.
ir.!e Southey, W. Scott, etc. -
First, Coleridge condemned, absolutely, a certain
category of words in -ed ; and, afterwards, he dis-
criminated such words ajsthetically, into the tolerable
1 Wai and EHdi, No. IB (1867), p. IS.
Mr, SuDiiel Bdlej prc^ipitBtel; asserts, with reference to laltnted :
'• For thii anomalona and ohjectioaable epithet there is no precedent,
except, perhaps, gifltd; bat the latter ia, tt all Bvonts, ullied to the
TL'tb j/itt, vbile the former hai nntbing to nppeol to but a noun,"
Diitaurui en Farioui Sub/Kli, p. TS, foot-note.
Tbb defeneo, boEides not being needed, ii not to the point. We
luTB had a verb gifl; and, — for nil Dr. RichardBon'a nnhistoric nsser-
ition to the contrnrj,— »« it did not grow out of the past participle of
fi'vt, it miut bare grovm out of u BUbBtantire. Vidt tupra, p. fiS,
a which the dietionBiies hiTB for the verb gift, I
a 1.
Totheqi
i*dd the following :
"No: men that arc p/M for it . . . eeek either to keep thcmaelTes
snt of the Couniiesion, or to get theniBelves off again, being on,"
Bishop Sanderson, Sirmmii (ad. 16S1), Vol. 2, pp. 291, 262, A aimi-
lac instance nccnn in the Bishop's Ttcehu Sn-moni (ed, 1637], p, 9fi.
Ateo Bee Matthew Lawrence, The Une and Pmetiei of Faith (1857),
p. 91fl; Milton, Prom Works (Bohn's ed.), Vol, B, p. 272.
Tonching talmled, m it was formerlf objected to, go eome object to
jt even in our own daj.
" Mr. Bnlwer ia not jet iafanffrf,— a psendo-participlo which no one
will nee who ia not ripe for any atrocity ; — hut he prognma
tnl ral*\" Thi Edinburgh RfvifV!, VoL 65 (1837), p. 77.
Dr. Rirburdsan, in his Dietiimitry, makea the inept obaerratioB fl
tBlmled. that " it has been too hastily naed in common speech."
what condiridns, pray, would it not have been used-" too hastily "
'■ Hr. Thombury, to use a vile word of bis own, is. no doubt, a
InltHttd writer ; but he is, frequently, careless." Tht Pall JUatl Bud-
gii, Jnly 8, IS70, p, 28,
Talml has not, to my knowledge, been produced as a verb ; but ml-
E, which Is just as hold a ventare, has been used as such.
'■ Bnt n<
Dutorgaed, o
lalenied, and poshed so vehemently ii
ID of whom I had no pretenoe lo hold, if ahe would go," kc. Rich-
daon, Clariaia Harhner (ed. 1811), Vol, 3, p, 84,
In Sir t'AarItt Grenditmi (ed. 1811], Vol, 7, p, 6, BiL'hardEon nsea
I and the intolerable. Anguished,- at one time, was
[ past his bearing; yet, by and by, he used it, bav-
I iiig discovered therein "a very peculiar ielicity."
I To himself he thus allowed a change of taste, and a
thange in the direction of liberality, 01' this, however,
he sometimes claimed a monopoly ; and, though with
I hia alteration of view regarding anguished to appeal
3 a precedent, any one that came to think favour-
I ably of talented was, nevertheless, guilty of " slang."
I have said that he uses anguished. In his poem
\ called The Sigh, we read of " au anguished sigh " ; and,
I In his Monody vn the Death of Ohatterton,^i&i'ha\svs&:
" On thy cold forehead starts the angaished dew."
While talenting and similar words have no exist-
nce, there is a very obvious reason why words of
I the class of talented are numerous ; namely, that we
I oftener have occasion to express, through a verb, the
I ideas of ' possessed of a quality or atti-ibute ', ' en-
I dowedness ', &c., than we have to^ express, through
I the same part of speech, the ideas of 'communicating
quality or attribute', 'endowing', &c., among
I which ideas are those denoted by the theoretic foun-
I dations of the actual talented and the potential tatcnt-
I ing, and their congeners/ If it were a common
' Coleridge deotareB lixaX " there is no each verb as ' to B>ignifh '."
I Arcliikiiiion Todd hua pointed out tliut this verb ii used hy WiclifTe ;
d he nnd Dr. fiichurdsati shuw that it occurs aguiD and sg>aa in our
^Oldur literature. If I were minded to spend au houi or two in taming
IT m; notes, I mi^^ht supplomauC their quutatiuni for it by half a
: but n<
* There, too, he bos " the aittaged dell " ; in Dommlic Ptace, " a
^tetlttgai Tale " ; in Lina in the Matinisr of Spttimr, " a liliid bank " ;
n Odi to the Eiparlin^ Yair, " ramparted with rooka " ; &c. &c.
* fiot, howcrer, Ihut the verb neutei talent \a bjr any means unEug-
operation to eorond a nobleman, or to laurel a poet,
we should, probiibly, have, to match our coroneted
and laurdled, the verbs coronet and linirel,^ with the
participles coronciing and laurelling. The verb
talent, in like manner, we might mint legitimately,
if we wanted it. The way in which talented and
many of its fellows were once frequently used shows
that these words, to the consciouaness of our ances-
tors, began with being strictly participles.' At pre-
sent, they have the fujiction of participial adjectives ;
and, what between their distinctive termination and
their history, tbey arc, therefore, to be considered,
on scientific piinciples, as developments from ideal
verbs.' The analogy on which they are formed is,
posabls. Such lorbs, from Bubatantivce, we have in great ubundance ;
•a elmul, _firf, gardtn, knot, league, leeliire, &c, &a. &c.
' SiCBroniit no3 ielaurei, and not necFGsarilj implying intenaivonHB,
wnnld be juet m analogioaL We bavB dealt diiTerently with height
and ilrcHgih, in farming htighten uid ttrmgthm. Bat tboaaimde of
(ubstantivea we convert into verbs, without the aid of preflt or raffii.
* The fullowin^ pasauge froni Abp, Abbot, of the time of James
I., is quoted b;; Arclideacon Todd : " VTbat a miseiabte and restleea
thing smbitinn ie, when one talented but )u n common pcreon," &«.
Arobdencon Todd ako quotes from Bishop Hall : " th;' hand lerplred
with a reed.''
"I marvall yonr noblemen of England doe not desire lo be better
laiigtuged in the forraino lungunges." Pnttenbani, p. 227.
" Those that are tbronghly arted in navigation." Feltbam, Simlvei,
&Q. (ed. 1628), Second Centnrie, p. 33.
Compitro Oovrpar's "maned with wavy gold." Iliad, S> 47-
' Coleridge himself considers taletUid to bo " a purticiplu paaaiva " ;
but, on lUB premises, he is very nbsurd in bo Considering it. " A par-
ticiple presupposes a vorb ", he tells us ; bnt be does not admit the na-
lumplion of u verb lolent. IIow cim " a participle patisire " originsta
from B suhBtautive, unless the auktantive b transfonned into a verb,
\n lerie as intermedium ?
Dean Alfotd is n» inconsistent as Coleridge.
" Tultiitei is about ts bad aa passible. What is it? It \uoVi like
further, so well establislied, that, whatever Coleridge
: dogmatized, in hia haate, "mere convenience *" is
a pnrticiplB. From what ?erb } Fancy such a verb ui ' la tutenl^ ■'"
f ^PUaforlht Qaetn' » Englith (ed. 1864), p. 109.
"As we know in the cose of talcnled and monej/ed, Ihc participle maj .
be tolerated long before tbe verh is invented." I6id., p. 116.
Ou the first inspection, lalentrd, to the Sean, only " looka like a
participle " i but, bj the time he has written seran pnges, its niece re-
■dmblance becomes a nalitj. Moreo'vcr, the Terb lalunt, just befoia
eiclaimed at, is now contemplated as among pOBaibililies. Wafl this
&om a Budiien fecundity of " fancy " ?
' What ulhec plea did our old writers consult, when they devised
' priHcipUd, which, with the verb pHnoipla, they were bo fond of ? See,
y btsides tha quotationa of the Isxicographers, Fuller and others, in
^igfAaf«Fi't'Ua, pp. 130, 144,364, 437; Burlhogge, (7Biwa JJei' (1679),
[ p. 244 : Puller, Tlw ModtmUBii, 4o. (ed. 1B43), p, 279.
We have, nJno, the verba active advaatoge, epprmliee, evidmee,
frouHil, inilaiiK, jyrimUge, tetncdg, ra/traice, &c. 4:0. &c.
Or. Priestley, diffenrig widely, in opinion, liom Dr. Johnson and
I Coleridge, wcites: " Some nouns are elegantly converted into verbs,
I without any changij at all. Ciinfiiotied, diadeiard, rihkaiisd." TAi
Rudimtnti a/ Engliih Grammar, &o. (ed. 1826}, p. 30.
Some conception of the freedom with which words like (sirn/erf used
I to be ettemporized may he funned from the ensuing extracts and re.
[ ferences.
" The idolatour, the tyraunt, and the whoremonger are no met«
I nynistflrs for bym, though they be never so gorgyonely iHytertd, eopcd,
Itad typpetid, or never so fyoely foresd, pylgimcd, and •carlttted."
Bishop Bale, The Vofafyon. &c. (1653}, in T/it Sarkian Hisullang
(ed. Oldys and Park), \'ol. B, p. 443.
"Money is a generall man, and, without doabt, excellently parted."
Feltbam, SubIvu, &q, Beoond Centurie, p, 106, "A Mud band."
~i„ fiW., p. 20.
"Whether there be any kind of magick simply so naturall, or laud-
J ably so arltil, as may serve to abstract it from the maleliciill and dio-
I bolicuU?" Gnule. nsc-fm»"-(a,p. 166. Also see pp. 3, 6fl, 177, 192.
He most indifferent and intelligane'd men." Uovrell, Twehe
I Stvtrat Treaiiia, Ac. (1661), p. 266.
Bihmiiiwtd. Pnltenham, p. 120. Scienad. Henry Earl of Mon-
mnnth, AdiKrtiKmmtt, ke., p. £3.
n there are btvted and npitrred, kilted and lartttnrd, bearded,
rd, canlvrrd, mrhimelcd, ekitterrd, dvddeird, homed, ivied,
', himred, liUtnd, livtried, orphatwi, proyn-tied, shttYd«4,»U«ii4,
lite ground enough to justify us in coining terms on
.e same model, whenever they may really he required.
"Oh for an Act of Parliament," ejaculates Cole-
[ ridge/ "for the trunsportation to America, or Van
I Dtemon'e Land, of the vile, infelicissimous felicit-
I ously!" On the part of Coleridge, of all men, it
I could, certainly, have demanded very little reflection
P to bethink himself of cases in which felicUomlif con-
I veys one's meaning better than happily; the two
worda not being, by any means, synonymous, in the
I strict sense of the term. Furthermore, if the red
rag of America had not presented itself to the poet's
lagination, in company with the unctuous adverb
which he spurns so contemptuously, it is scarcely to
I be doubted that he would have dismissed it with
punishment less severe than outright pro-
scription, and banishment beyond sea. Every reader
must remember that, in Ohrkinbel, an owlet, weirdly
prescient of a providential mastiff-6iVcA hard by,
I instead of comporting itself like ordinary owlets, de-
I livers itself of a hideous seriteh} If this novel pro-
cedure of Minerva's favourite were at all better cal-
culated than an ordinary regulation screech to pierce
or infrigidate one's marrow, it might be connived at.
, But, to moat tastes, it may be suspected, a lazily in-
I tlipperid, ijmtanltil, veHomed, wea/nmed, vtheelsd, fehakcrfd, viilou:eH,
t winged, &c. &c. Bigoted, crabbtd, and a. few other anomnlieB, need
not detain me.
Add oountlcsa worda liVe impauiened and unaxampUd, with nom-
poundi lilce high-limagtd luid law-ranilied, almost beyond count.
' Compoande, however, have their own apecisi laws,
' .\'o(ei. Tkeoloffieal, &e. (ed, 1853), p. 226, foot-note.
> I am wtU nwaio that teriieh and lerilch-uiel are found in old
I aathors.
iNTdTTVE' PHILOLOGY.'
ritch must give deeper offence than even an
infelicitously' hesiovi%AfeUeitoiisbj ; and so, in all like-
lihood, must the demeanour of Coleridge's aim, which,
as represented in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
uprist, under the despoiio spell of a coming mid.
According to Mr. G. P. Marsh,' ' difl'ei'ent to ' is to
be reckoned among " gross departures from idiomatic
propriety "■ It is " common ia E
1 This -Rord CoUridt'e uses in hia Cliurch and Slalt, &c. (ed. IS39),
p. 192.
' Leetum tm the Enr/liih Language, p. SS9.
' Dean Alfotd takea 'different ie'in hnnd; and hia information
and argumentation abiiut it are at Ma usiiilL level. lie "voi nut
awflte," till BOmB one pointed ont to liim, that it "has betomo vtrj
cammoQ, of late". And then: "Of caursc, aiich a combination iii
enliiel; against all reason and anali^."
A no Icat apeaking eiidenee of ibe Dean 'a inconipetenc}' to diacoiu-att
on the English languid ia seen where he aap : " A com-sspondent com-
plains of the use. by Boma of our beat writers, of the aubjunctivii
'thou werf', aa equivalent to the indicative 'thoa uiaal'. I own (
had not obeerved it. Of course, there can be no doubt that it is
wrong, wherever it may oocut."
Thirtj' years ago, I began to make a list of writers who have used
' thou UKri ' for ' Ibon kiikI ', It grew to inolnde a hundred and forty
namea, the earliest of which aro Eli/ehothan ; and then I gave over.
Dr, Johnaon, ia hia Gratitnuir, simply sap that iiw< "ought not to
be nsed in the indicative ", — a rule which he himself violates in hia
Prajer dated March 28, 1754. Bishop Lowth points nut the aubati-
tution of vwl for tuail ; but he had, apparently, little idea how many
auffragea for it could bs muatered. It was actuated, we may safely
conjecture, by an instinct against cacophony i and ao well ia it ealflb-
lished, that, at least in poetry, it is free from alt reproach.
Of iBcrl, for icBii, the Eev. Mr. Blaokley says ; " We find it every-
where, in novels and in newspapers, in poetry and in proae; audit cer-
tainly betrays one of the results of modern neglect of grammar. The
greaUst writers are not free from the error, who would, yet, fee! indig-
nant enough, if anpposed not to know the difference between the indi-
cative and subjunodve moods.
" Men are apt — at least, those vho have not studied the subject, — tn
take for granted, that our earlier literature is nncoulh and clumsy, and
: ita fortDS are a mere forluitoua medley, mtWa.\. ro^e ti:t AinE^\&-
and he might have added 'exceedingly common'.
In truth, one Beldom hears there, except iu sermons
flexion ; but yet our eirlier literature shows no confusion betwei^n tlie
wunis mast and (csr(, euch aa the present sge displays : the ISibtc has
the word te/rt oalj twice, both times in a subjunctiye sense, alwars
using tcail lathe mdicative. And jet modern writers, who nould flosli
into a peiBplmtion, many a time, at the thonght of having mnde such
nn error in a Lstin quotation, do not hesitate to publish its i-qulvalent
in English, time after time. It ia useless to excuse this, as sanctioned
by nnage, nnleas we should say that those who know best the gnunmar
of their natire tongue are bound to adopt and follow the errors which
originate in tlie ignoraniie of those who truly know nothing on the suh-
ject. A man may be a good poet and a bad grammarian ; and, to say
that ' Ihon Kcrl there,' instead of ' thon wail there,' is to be right, be-
cause Tennyson, or any one else, has written it, would compel us
henceforth to adopt such a monstrous Terb as ' to uiiii ' into our lan-
guid, because it has been used in a very beantiful poem which lately
appeared in one of our Magazines," Word Sonip, pp. 102, 103.
Here we hava not only the full measure of Dean Alfnrd's darkness
in history, but a distinct enonncement of the futile notion of grammar
which 1 hare combated so earnestly in my Secenl Eximplificatima of
Itilse Phihlegy.
But, first, how does Mr. £lackley know that the substitution which he
arraigns originated in " ignorance " ? Suielj, oicept when a people
is ntunislakablj in a state of decay, the speech of (he literate is little
likely to be really corrupted, however it may ha altered, by the influ-
ence of t}ie illiterate. Much rather, I should say, the grammar of the
illiterate is likely to be improved bv the iofluBuce of the literate. It
is not, howevc'r, a depravation that is now before us ; and to father the
indicative uwri on " ignocanoo " is wholly grntuibins. "Was it from
" ignorance " that icatt displaced the old unre, of which I shall soon
speak?
As to true grammar, what is false, (onching its genesis and cha-
racter ? If Mr, Bleckley's criticism be correct, true grammar can be
nothing else than a sort of final revelation. To as, it is an inheritanoe
from happier times ; and we have no more right to alter it, than we
have to write a never than the New Testament. Any alteration of it,
though ever so alight, must be a sophistication.
Among "thosewlio know beat the grammar of their native tongiie".
Mr. Blackley is scarcely to be reckoned ; seeing that he aoeounta the use of
n indicative, to ho unknown in "our earlier literature", and
to " betray one of the result* of modem neglect uf grammar," The
iadieatirB tetrt, — not toadduce, needlessly for any scholar, the authority
lectures, ' different from ' ; and, in literature,
'different to' has, for nearly three centunes, and
of Shakeapeore for it, — I And to b« of frequent opciirreiiKC iu Shslie-
spflare's onnlemporariBB. I name a few o( those wto ompliiy it, The
Earl of OiLford, quoted itl The ArU ef Ettgliih Fotaie, p. 173. John
\ Lylj', Euphua (1579-80), pp. 182, 386 [ed. 18G8). Bilinabe Kicbl,
[ Fameill, &c. (ifiBl), p. 188 (ed. 1846). Hobett Greene, Ji™d(o
(1687), p. 40 (in jlrehaiea, VoL i) : Fhilemtla, p. 12 (in AnUif,
' VoL I). Putt«ahnin, Tht Arte of Engluh Fottu (1S89), p. 1d8 (ed.
' 1811), Gabriell HarTejr, Fbur Ltlttr; &e. (1S9Z), p. 26 (iu ArcUica,
I Vol. 2). Tbomaa Nmh, Pifrce Rmleue, &c. (1SB2], pp. 10, 43. &e.
(ed, 1842) i Chnit'i Ttan over Jertaaltnt (169*). pp. 23, 25 (in Arch-
twa. Vol. 1). Qmiticni ef l^-ojilabie md FUaaant CmetrmHgn (1694),
fol. 2a r. Kobert Southwell (before lS96),i^MfiR>/fri)rtt(ed.IS66), p.
IS. Henrj Conatable, in the first of liiur sonnets prefixed to Sir
Philip Sidney's^H Apuhgit for PoeMt (1696). Henry Porter, The
PUatanl EUtorie, &c. (169B),p. 80 (ed. 1841). Bichard Johnxon,
m Fliaiutnt Cnnceila of OldSobaan, &il, (1007), p, 32 (ed. 1844).
Thomaa Dekker, A KnigAi'a Cottjuriiis, &c. (1907), p. 26 (ed. 1842) j
T/u Dead Tmrme (1608), tag. E 2 r.
It will surprise Mr. BlscUey, and snperBcialista of hia stamp, to be
I t«ld, that, before llie fourteendi eeutnry, tbwe waa no wmf, hut in ita
I ilcad, vien. Dr. Morris shows this ; yet, on coming to tcert, be re-
nurka, entirely In the old-fasbionedl spirit of pbilologizinj;, that it " is
Knnelimea, but wrongly, used for the subjnnctiYe Kere (second person
singular)." SUlsrieal OiUtiiiei of EagtUk Aeeidtnee, pp. 181, 182.
Br. Johnson, Dishop Lowth, £e. &b.. l^ow nothing vlintever of such
syntax as ' if tbon leere '. And how often bos it appeared in literature,
within the two last centuries P
Mr. Marsh has prudnoed passages which proTB that <eau and wrt,
u indinalives, were used contemporaneoiuly, but with a distinction ; the
Utter signifying 'became', tccturei a» the English Language, f^.
316, 317,
Ben Jonsnn, in treating of maa and iBfre, plainly does not intend
what he a^ys ; for he implies, that Ibey maj, in all cdbcb, be employed
sltsmatiTelj.
Jt, strange substitute for tuiut, namely u)eTiil, is used by Eakewilt,
An Apotogie, tc. (1630), p. S3. TVarl occurs in tbe original drauglit
of ona of Shakespeare's plays. Si-e The Firel Sketches, &c (1B43),
pp. 16, 21, £c. The indicative ' tbon wen ' lingered on during moat
f the aiitsentb century. See Sir Thomas Elyot, Tht Immje ef
OiKM-MHK (1644), fol. 102 i: Udall, Sniph Soinlir Diiiilcr (1563),
p. 33 (ed. 18Q9) : Puttenbant, The Arte, &c., p. IBS.
80 CHAPTER III.
perhaps for a longer period, been competing with it
for the mastery.^ Though first-class writers have,
It is curious how many who venture criticism of our mother-tongue
show themselves unequal to what they undertake. The Rev. Jame«
Gurnhill, in English Retraced (1862), — a book which, with all its im-
perfections, I am glad to possess, — has an article on incontinently, for
* forthwith', regarding which he writes: "In this sense I do not
recollect ever to have heard it used, although it still finds a place in
our dictionaries *'. Of jakes he also tells us : " I do not know that it
occurs in any other passages than the two already quoted [from the
Geneva Bible ] ; nor have I met with it elsewhere ".
What can be this gentleman's acquaintance with the living English
of conversation, let alone modern books ? And what his acquaintance
with our older literature ?
1 Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, Patient OHshU (1603), p. 72 (ed.
1841). Sir Arthur Gorges, Translation of Bacon's Be Sapientia Vete-
mm (ed. 1619), Preface. Mabbe, The Rogue (ed. 1623), Part 1, p.
101. James Hay ward, The Banished Virgin (1635), pp. 35, 78. Brath-
wait. The Tioo Lancashire lovers (1640), p. 231 : The English Gentle-
man^ &c. (ed. 1641), p. 178. Howell, Twelve Several Treatises, &c.
(1661), p. 194. Glanvill, Plus Ultra (1668), p. 146. Trans, of //
Nipotismodi Roma (1673), Part l,p. 109. Addison, The Spectator, No.
239. Sir Richard Steele, The Guardian, No. 144. Theophilus Gibber,
The Lover, Act 3. Samuel Richardson, Perme/a (ed. 1811), Vol. 2, pp.
46, 335: Clarissa Harlowe (ed. 1811), Vol. 2, p. 347: Sir Charles
Grandison (ed. 1811), Vol. 3, p. 123; Vol. 6,p. 344. Shenstone, Letters,
No. 23. Cambridge, The World, No. 102. Coleman and Thornton, The
Connoisseur, Nos. 71, 106. Jones, of Nayland, Theological and Mis-
cellaneous Works, Vol. 2, p. 203. Foote, The Devil upon Ttvo Sticks,
Act 1, Scene 3. Miss Bumey, Evelina (ed. 1779), Vol. 1, Letters
10, 25 ; Vol. 3, Letter 2 : Cecilia (1782), Book 1, Ch. 9 ; Book 7»
Ch. 6 ; Book 8, Ch. 7 ; Book 10, Ch. 8. Lady Hesketh, Poems and
Early Productions of William Cowper, &c. (1825), p. 60. Southey,
Colloquies, &c. (ed. 1831), Vol. 2, p. 273 : Essays, Moral and Political
(1832), Vol. 1, p. 10.
Mr. J. R. Bartlett, in his Dictionary of Americanisms (second ed.),
p. 119, writes: "In England, the expression is * different to* ; and so
the old English writers quoted in Richardson's Dictionary.^' Neither
there, nor in any other dictionary that I know of, is a single writer,
old or new, quoted for * different to.*
* Different to ' is criticized in Robert Baker's Remarks on the Eng-
lish Language (ed. 1779), p. 4. Baker calls it "an expression often
used by good writers." •
IKTUmVB PHILOLOGY.
B and there, let ' different to ' escape their pens,'
it can hardly be sIiowti, however, that any of them
have given into it advertently.' In all probability,
it has seemed to them too colloquial. Just at pre-
■ sent, tho critics are strong in their opposition to it ;
md no one comes forward in its defence.
Kow that, like party, for ' person ', it has de-
fended to tho vulgar,' it may, quite possibly, be
raidiculed wholly out of respectable vogue. But the
it objection to it, after all, is, that it contributes to
livided usage, a thing always to be resisted, where
resistance is practicable. "We have, in it, most
iely, one of those numerous locutions which, ori-
ginaling in that spontaneous aversion to dissonance
which marks the easy flow of nnpedantic conversa-
tion, careful writers, in observance of analogy, have
mot deemed worthy of dignifying by admission into
ihe language of books. To speak of it, therefore, as
Klonging to the class of " gross departures from idi-
matic propriety ", is to pass off a verdict of personal
mder the guise of an adjudication of science ;
' There are casus in wliicli ' dilFecent (o ', but nut ioi ' different/roiH ',
■ rigbt. " Seeing all thi^ee maj bee quite atherwiee altered by tbe con-
IKlutiun of tbe psreots, b; nature's work, diSerent tu botb their oon-
' 'tutioni," &o. John Ghiiile, nfie-*""'riii, p. 87.
• Mr. Thaukeraj, in. Tka Ntmaimea, after having invariably used
'diffenint (o", prefcrB ' difFerent/r'oni,' at p. 112 of Vol. 4, nnd ibenfle-
forward. I refer to the Taucbaib! edition.
Modern writsra, as Charles Lloyd, Dr. H, Stubbing, Miss Charlotta
Bruiitf, Mr, J. Fyerott, Mr. Tbomas Hughes, ka. &c., might b<i quoted,
for'diffatBntJo', by the score.
' " Ue talked kinder difierent ta what I can. talk." OOiis Trip t»
L/rndsn (Nurwiob, 1871), p. Id.
Any one who has oourersed with tlie common people of England
ntul know that ' different to ' is in everyday use among thsm. Lt tiu&
[ deKonded to them from their auperion.
and rational science, in matters of language, has no
dependence on a priori ridea. " Idiomatic propriety "
18 not a thing that comes down to us, ready-made,
and fixed for all eternity, from the skies ; and,
besides, it is the tongue and ear, quite us much aa
the hand, hy which it is determined. The English
neither write nor say ' differ to' ;^ and, hence,
from a sense of symmetry, most of them, in deliber-
ately recording their thoughts, eschew ' diiferent to '?
If we had had a verb neuter avert, it may be that
' Differ may talie ici'l/i, when in opi»ion, or tbe lilie, ia eipresGcd
Of UD^eretuod.
" If [D di^tr, eier hereafter, with on Dpatart minister is tu be i»n-
■trned ", &c. John Wilkoe, The North Sritm, No. 37. Also sen God-
win, nS« Enqmrer, pp. Bi, 278.
In other vases, tuo, differ has mnietimea taken u-i'M.
" Idolatry . . . diffirs hut n letter tnitA idiolBtry." Bishop Andtewes,
Simty-fix Sermom {eil. 1841—1844), Vol.-2, p. 393.
' Not do they write or any 'diffarlng to'. But just as hiu^h ia
'disagreejngtd'. Edward Dntxt*, Machiavftt Diteeiiria {\m),'p. ISA.
And the flipression is found in Glanrill, Stepnk Sdenlijiea (ed. l66o),
p. 91. BBntleydoeBeTenworso than this. "They would, , . trsduie,
punish, and peraeoate, to the utmoat, all that diHigroa to thera."
Workt, Vol. 3. p. 312. Baphe Eobynaon has "disa^einff /rmn".
Translntion of Sir Thotnas More's Ulopiii (1551), p, 99 (ed. 1869).
Gianvill has " disagree /roin ". Ussa;); &c. (1676), II., p. 41.
' Difference to' is not entirely nnfcnown. Riehardsnn, J'nmeh, Vol.
2, p. 347- Miss Bumey, Eveliiia, Vol. 2, Letter 21. Doubtless it was
bused on ' different to \
' Difference tliaii' oiwurs in Pntt«nham, The Arte, &e., p. 116,
We Bnd, BB the result of wero heedlwsneas, 'different t/mii' in
Addison, Steele, De Foe, Ricbaidson, Coleman and Thorutoo, Miaa
Bnraoy, Coleridge, Mr. De Quineey, Mi. Thackeriiy, and Dr, New-
man. Similar are the following. ' Another /rum '. GlanTJll, Utb-
dale Prieo. Lord Teignmonth, landor, Mr. De Qnincey, Mr. Dietens,
Mr. Churles Eeade, Mr. Matthew Arnold. ' Another la '. John Gaule.
Addison, Miss Barney, Mr, DJekeuB, ' Cnntrarj Hum '. Hilton, Henry
More, Steele. ' Contrary /™«'. Bp. Wnrhnrlon, Graves. 'Peculiar
_/5ow '. Dean Swift. ' Opposite y™m', Steele, Landot, "Inseparable
fs'. Steele. •AnptberB than'. Dr. Newman, 'Morefof'. Cowper,
ISTUITTVE EHILOIXJGT. BA
\ the influence of the preposition it would regu-
I larly have takeu would have kept us from altering
the ' averae from ' of our forefathers into ' averse /o ',
now generally prevalent.' To sum up this argument,
the conclusion is, that ' diS'orent to ' is, essentially, an
EngHah colloquialism; and, like many colloquialisms,
evinces how much stronger the instinct of
, euphony is than the instinct of scientific analogy,^
In a tale of contemporary English life, to make its
I actors, unless they were very formal personages in-
I deed, say anything else than 'difi'erent to' would
simply misrepresent facts, Mr. Marsh tells us, that,
I though 'different to' is "common in England," in
I America, " none but very ignorant persons would be
guilty of" employing the expression. Herein are
I two palpable sophisms. Englishmen, for using this
I
' Preoiaely lika digereut and arirm, vs. to the nature o£ its prefii, ia
iimimiiar, aFtHr wldub. It ia naiml to put to. Sn it is cunstrucUid by
Miss Bnmey, Pnlaj, Hallam, Sonthey, Mr, Ue Qaincej, Mr. J. 8.
Mill, anil Dr. Nowman; with M or from, bj William Godwin and
Landor; with fmm nnly, by Gibbon and Charles Lloyd. 'Foreign.
Jmin ' and ' fon^gn (o ' nare long used promisCuoOBly.
The old verb duaird almost always took, 1 believe, viilh. ' Dia-
CDrdant to ', whiuli cIomIjt matclies ' different (o ', has the sanction n[
■Warbiirlon. A SetcetioH fram UHpublishid Paptrt, &e. (1841),
p, 404. Barrow haa ■ discordant from '. Works, Vol. 3, p, 372,
' Formerly I inclined to anotber view, seeing in the (s uf ' dilTer-
nt ta', the implication of cuntrasC. But this notion has no anund
oaiB, hiahiiii»! or. other. It would ha a nice rBSnemcnt, and also
lotirelcu, that ahuuld abate the distinetness marked by the from of
differenl/rom ', into the oomparnlive vagnenesa of relation eipresaed
by the vicarioua lo, Beaidca ,this, 'different to ', clearly enough, waa
nvvi<r auggealed by coriuuB reflection.
I have touni] in Italian, whore it ia anomaloaa, what corresponds to
dilTeceiit (".' " E, in vcro, una Ggnra di pictra sarebbe stata poca
I lei dijertnte." Bosini, La Mamaa di Monsa (ed. Pisa, 1829^, Vul.
l,p.47.
[ 84 CKAPTKB III.
phrase, are implied to be ignorant ; as if their choos-
ing to speak like the vagt majority of their educated
countrymen, in preference to obeying the behests of
transcendental grammarians, made them so. On the
other hand, in America, it is local usage, not Buperior
enlightenment, that accounts for the all but universal
adherence to ' different //■owi ' ; and, however it might
be with followers of English precedents, the "very
ignorant ", least of all, would there deviate into
such an exotic peculiarity as ' different to ' .
' In respect of ' and ' in regard of ' are expressions
which, in modern English, Mr. Marsh heartily dis-
likes ; and moat of ns, I dare say, concur ivith him
in hia dislike of them. As substitutes for ' with
respect io ', ' with regard to ', they are not seen to
realize that superior precision which, on their face,
they seem to promise, and which alone could make
amends for their quaintness. An air of affectation and
vagueness infects them, such that they may expect
favour from none but persons of rather peculiar
tastes ; ^ and there is very little danger of their be-
' Dean Alford roundly asBertB that ' in respect o/'' "is, eertiiinly, as
miicli used bj good modBrn writerB, a«" 'with, respect to '. A Pita,
&C., p. 100. The Dean, if he had a serviceRhle memory, could have
giteii DO more aariafaotorj' proof tban he thus gives, of the atrailen-
ed limits of his litvraty assocbtious. It is uoti<!i?Bblp, also, that hu
appears to he acquainted vith only one sense home by the cipression,
namely, that of 'as to '■
It ia Scotchmen, mora partieularlj, that affect ' in respect of, now-
a-days. Ixird Macaulay, in all hia writing, has aaed it oniy twice, I
think. To pass to entire Englishmen, but few of them, in the lirst
half of this nentury, have the expresuon. For an instance in Southoy,
■ee his Vind. Eccl. AiigL, p. 4^5. Ur. De Cluinccy sometimes g^vo
into It. Bee hia fCorkt, Vol. II, pp. 13, 177, 2o6: The logic of
Jb/itieal £i»HBi»j) (ed, 1811), p. 31.
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 85
coming popular. But Mr. Marsh rejects them on
other grounds than expediential and aesthetic. Part
of his polemic against them I transcribe. Having
spoken of the preference given, by Coleridge ^ and his
imitators, to this style of phraseology, he goes on to
say:
" It rests, of course, on the theory, that, in this phrase,
respect or regard is an independent noun, and, therefore,
should be followed by the preposition of. But this, I
think, is a mistaken view of the subject. The word
respect, in this combination, has none of the meanings
known to [sic] ^ it, as an independent noun, in the English
vocabulary. The expression in or with respect is an idiot-
ism, a phraseological construction of an adverbial cha-
racter ; and, in its ordinary modern use, it is the equivalent
of * relatively \ Old writers sometimes say respectively to.
This is now disused ; but relatively to is by no means un-
frequent ; and * in respect of\ used in this sense, is just as
gross a violation of English grammar as to write * rela-
tively of\ or * in reference of\^^ ^
Here we again find Mr. Marsh on the confines of
Olympus. * In respect of\ to mean ^ relatively to ',
1 Coleridge is admitted, on all hands, to have been mainly influen-
tial in revivifying the locution — well nigh moribund, when he began
his career, — ^which is here discussed. And it is characteristic of
him.
* A Lord Grenville of former days wrote of " a long and destructive
warfare, of a nature long since unknown to the practice of civilized
nations." Here, remarks Coleridge, " the word to is absurdly used for
the word in.*' Essays on His Own Titnes, p. 262. Not unlike the
nobleman's *^ unknown to", the context considered, is Mr. Marsh's
"known to".
3 Lectures on the English Language, p. 661.
CHAPTER ni.
he knows to have been, for a veiy considerable period,
accepted English ; and he himself quotes Bacon for
it. Nevertheless, it is, he declares, " a gross violation
of English grammar". What, then, constitutes
grammatical orthopraxy P If it is not dependent
on usage, it behoves Mr. Marsh to acquaint us from
Tvhat philologically accredited region of the firma-
,ment he draws down the laws by which it is go-
verned.'
The argument furnished by Mr. Marsh, in sup-
port of their choice, to those who elect ' in respect
of\ is one which, in its totality, moat unquestion-
ably they would not urge. Though they took up
the positions, which they well might take up, that,
in this phrase, respect ia "an independent noun",
and that it signifies ' relation ', ' reference ', still they
would not contend that it " therefore should be fol-
' Mr. Marah's Beleolion of illustralion. iu order to bring- out the
alleged nnalogioai alisurdity of ' in respect of, bc^tokens a most
peonliar eatimute of grammnticalnesa. lie cannot place side bi; eido
with >in respect of, eome Modred obsDletUm; because anj' obsolctism,
it KemB, a vquallj had gmmmnr. The resulting parallelism would
h» like the teatimony of the left hand against the right. Good gram-
mar, it foUnwfl, is ascertained b; the beet nsage oontempuraneoualy
current ; barbarizing whatever is diaused, and destined, in turn, to he,
itself, barbarized b;; vbatorEr sapersedes it, in time to come. Of liv-
ing grammar, of good grammar for us, this is a correct ounaeption;
and it is perfecllj fair to try by it any form of phrase found in writings
nf our own age. fiuC Mr. Marsh, in passing sentence on ' in respect
of', takes his stand on an idea at grommnr whicb uvacuates the by-
gone nsage of our ancestors of all aalhority to determine what it was
right that they should say ; since he classes theic ' in respect of', for
•with respect ta', absolutely, among "incorrect forms" and "inei-
preasivo syntaotical combinations ", and calls it " a mere grammatical
crotchet " and a " more violation of a gramrnatical rido ". Puor an-
ceitors ! And how can Mr. Marsh deny to oar descendnnls the right
sating, IQ like manner, that we, too, were imbeeilea ?
I
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY.
lowed by the preposition of "?■ For, alike in old
English and in modern, relation and reference take to
after them, not of,^ in an objective conatruction, the
construction here contemplated.'
' "Noboilj ever thinks ot aajing 'in reference of ; but, if tlieee
I phrases are Co be guvemed bj the niJea of English constraction of
nouiw, there is as good groonil for this eiprossion lu for 'in respect
Tba Latin etymology of rfapeet has nothing to Uo with the
I ljufistioa ; for the Latin priniitiTe [«iV| wna not uaed for any siieh pur-
I pose, or iu any such eonstiuotiun ; aud the phrase in quesliun is
■Iriclly an Englitth idiotism."
Su writes Mr. Marsh, in a foot-note ; and he is quite right in hold-
I ing that the cunstruation of reapectui is no pveccdent lor the can.
n of raped. But his doctrine na to the way we ehould cou-
i our substantiies is not very intelligible. Is it, that af shoold
he nslrieted to the eiprossion of subjectivity ? If bo, ■ love of money '
a wrong, since money does not love ; nnd tliu adncminal ' city of
Home' keeps It company, Kome not denoting an action known ob
• Eieeptions sboold be noted ; and here ia one. " They intraaled
the doctor to make a more porricuiar explication of whatsoever he
had spoken in rtfirmM of the passions to musick ", &c. Th« Camieat
Buloiy b/ Fraamim (1655), Book 11, p. 27.
In St. Jumes, 2, 9, and I. St. Peter, 1, 17,— in both which places,
wip'Wmeana'parttaloonaideration^^webiive "rMpwifo persons" and
nipmt ii/' parsons ". Even from these phrases, which are synon-
nous, it is seen how freely wa allowed ourselvus, formerly, an option,
the omttcr of prepositions.
Old authors also have ' to value of a rush ', ' to glory of, ' remorae
^ wn ', ' born o/ a woman", 'to depend of, 'to tai o/', where, dis-
placing of, wo now put at, in,for,frotn, on, with. Add, 'independent
JroM or DM ', ' injrredient into ', ' contemporary (o ", ' equivalent with ',
&/:. &c. Almost every prepodtiun, in fact, once was usad where it is
used no longer. All the archaiu looutions adduced ubove, witL thoa-
.*ande more, are to be stigmatized as ungiammatical, if 'in respect of
ly broadly be so branded.
With reipect of, like anything else, would have been good English,
people had only voted strongly enough for it. Dean Alford
n tbat this combination, "nntcsa I vm miEtukon, is not found".
With reapKt ofour onne profit " occurs iu The Hmey-coiHbir of Fret
(1042), by John Eaton, p. iVL And bcre is no iuAtenue
]er, and one of with reyiird nf. '■ But tho king's raaCi«»
And on wliat kind of research, and on how much,
did Mr. Marsh base his constructive assertion, that
the substantive respect, elsewhere than in phraseo-
logical combinations, does not import ' relation ',
' reference ' ? I should judge, that, for conviction on
this head, he thought it enough to look into Dr.
Johnson's Dicthnanj} Inasmuch as the verb rei^eet
travelling inccssaiitly betncsnE the liing and the duke, 1s-
lioured them both to a reooncileraent; the Mng, icith regard of the
liangeroaa and diacontenied times ; the dnie, ici'A rritpfct af his dutj
and faith." Sir John HaywnrciB, Tkt First Fart of t/u Lifi end
HeifHB nf King Seiirie the IIII. (1699), p. 7.
' Under Dr. JohnBon'e ninth dsflnitioa of rs«pM(, "relfltion, regard",
fire pasBugfs are quoted. In four of them, the word defined in em-
bedded in the expreasions in raped of and loiVA raped to ; and the
remaining passage is ont af ptnce, since rvipict, in its " in maii<r
Ttapecta ", has a very different meaning from that nssignad to it. I
now proceed with my uitutions.
" Coniultatinn bath respect to the time futnre or to come; (hut ia
to Htf, the end or pnrpDse thereof is adresaed tu sums net or alTnire to
be practised after their consul talion." Sir Thomua Eiyot, Tim Oo-
riTKCiur (1531), foL 211 [ed. 1530).
" Nothing is good, I see, withont refptet."
Shakespeare, TAe MerchBnl of Venice, Act ft, 8e, I.
" In the infancie of the church, .... ChristitinB flourished not,
either in number, or in wealth, or in authoritio ; and, therefore, Saint
Paul had onely retpeet of those to whom he writ, . . . and raant
not that his preoept should be held for a perpoCnall lawe." William
Watson, A Deeaeordon. &c. (Ifl02), p. 298.
■'Therefore those positive lawes that doe soe scTorely pnniah the
nctuall breaches o{ the second Table, viithout any rcapeel to the sinnea
that are committed agunat the Brst, were rather aette downs by the
polioiea of men, then by the rode of the written word of God." Bar-
nabe Eiche, The Hoaentie of This Age (I6H), p, 56 (ed. 1844).
" So that ail theae fonre places hare one reijiicl and aymo -, and none
of them look towards onr qnestion." Dr. Donne, Bialhaaalot (1st
ed., undated), p. 160.
" What I aime al, in if, I confcase, hath moat rt^ci to ray selfo."
Feltham. Raali-a, Jtc. (ed. 162B), First Centurie, To the Pemaer.
"Ereij laakt^ laboor, or iniploymeat must hare loferencB aod
INTUITIVE IHILOLOGT.
I
aynonymous with relate io and refer' to, a little
deliberation ought to suggest, ijuit^ abstractedly
rupcct tu sonifl end," Brnthwait, Tiit Eiiglith Gcnltmnan, &c. (ed.
1641], p. 162. Also Bee p. 187.
" Insomlmh as some interpreters mnceiTe it not improbabk tbaC
Sdloman, in this plsee, mi);ht have leiptct to thoso rc?ul and saeec-
dotal snuintingB," &c. Sp. Sanderson, Sfrmotii (ed. 1681), Vul. 2, p. 5.
Alio ue p. 211.
■' Must churoh-goTernment that is appointed in the Gospel, and has
cbief renpect to the «oul, be conforniiibU and pliant to civil ....!"
Milton, FfBK Warha (Bohn'e ed.), Vol. 2. p. 332.
" That adminiatrBlion of the penple did consist in three fnactions,
prophetical. regiU, sacerdotat ; all which had I'cspecC onto the Measias,"
&c, Bp. Pearson, An Expoaitim of the Greed (ed. 1816), p. 140.
" The wealmesB of which argnmentatJon coneista in suppuaing that
those variable reipicli of before and after are realities in natnrB."
Glanvill, Seil* Tuum Ifiiil Eit (ed. 1669), p. 63. Also see Sotpiii
Scitniifiea (ed. 1665), p. 61: liaayii, kn. (1676), IV., p. 3B: L<ix
Orimlala (ed. 1S82), p, 12 : Letter prefixed to Bp. Ruafa A Bit-
t/imrae of Truth.
"Matter is the anme with body, bnt never without reapeet Ui a
body which ia made thereof." HohbeB, Works (ed. Sir W. Moles-
worth), Vol. 4. p. 309.
" Local and icmporal, implying a resptet betwiit somellting absent
and past, either to that whichi is present, or to that which is nt dis-
tance and fntore." Bp, Wilkins, An Jiimy Ibwardi a Real Charatler,
&o. (1668), p. 313. Alao see pp. 28, 20, 31, 35, 37, 316, 310, 333,
412.
" By the first [kind ot truth] I mean notbinK eIec but tliat things
necessarily are what they ere ; by the second, that there are necessary
mutual rupccli and relations of things, one unto another." Bp. Kuat,
JJ)>»mui-KD/rruiA(16a2),8BC.I. And see this little work thronghoat.
"Therefore that idea must have the same properties and mpi^ta
for ever," Henry More, Aaiielatioru h^oh 'Lax Orirnlalis,' &c. (lfiS2),
p. 19, Many other refereucea to (his work might be given. Also lee
T^ Myitvry nf Oodlinia (ed. 1660), p. IBO.
"Seeing, therefore, the observation of the Sabbath is expressed to
have ft peculiftr ret/itct to tho children of lerael, as a sign ol' the cove-
nant made with them, when he led them out of Egypt," Sec. Barrow,
— ■ ■ ■ IS83— 16B2),p^ol. I, p. SBS. Also see Vol. 1, p. S18;
Vol. 2, pp. 62, 65. 93, 102, 269. 381. 620,
" And Antilochns, perhaps, might have a ivjji?o( to tkUdad.n.ac^'^Oti'nt.
from consultation of dictionaries, that the subBtantive
! respect had, pKibably, been employed for ' relation ',
[ he put tiitrla," &c. Benlley, Workt (ed. Ret. Aleiandor Dyce), TdL 1,
p. la*. Also see The Coyrapondenceaf Miehard Biiilley, I).B.,-[i. 413.
An nnonymotia pontrihutor to The Sj/eelalor, No. 651, sending a
tranalntion of an epigram on Menander, beginning nitb tliig coapleE,
" The very boeB, flBBBt Menander, hung,
To taste tbe Muses' spring, upon thy tongue ",
begins hia comment on it in tbeae words : " This epiifrari has a reip/el
to the ahsructer of ita subjoet ; for Menandur writ lemarkably n'itli a
justness and purity of Innguage."
" If BO, it sbawa why tiiE trial tias made ; nby it was the last trial ;
for it rendered Abraham's faith complete, and had retpeel to the |;reat
snd of ali the promiBea." lip. Warburtun, A SekcUon &c p 89
"All these quotations solely respect the parliament imn ediately
preceding that ot 1079, and hare no reapeet to any aabsequBnt par
Haraont whatever." John Wilkes, We iVbrt* Br (a ^o 36
I "And the warninj of the prophet h»d a pnncipal reipecl to the
f Jews, also, who were too ronch inclined tn depend upon the assistance
of EjtTpt." Bp. Lowth, Iiauih (ed. 1778), Notes, p. 117.
" This circnmstanee of the place hns renpevt to the temptation of the
Israelites." Jones of Nayland, Tkiolagieat and Minallanirius Works,
Vol. 2, p. 214.
" These questions, then, have direct reepeet to the rule and charncter
which is to mark your instrDCtions of your people, so far as the
o9ce of a teaoher is committed to yon." Ep. Wilberforoe, Ad4reKset,
&o. (ed. ISeo), p. 37.
Many more similar passages are at hand. "Here are references to a
few, Thomas Qataker, Of the Nature and Utf- of lots {ed. 1627), p-
\ Hi. Dr. John Coweli, The Interpreitr (ed, 1637), sig. A 4 iw-jo.
IVabbe, Thi Sogue (ed. 1623), Fart S, p. 274. John Eaton, The
ljBotiet/-eambe of Free Jutiifieation (1642), pp. 70, 188. Matthew
" I, The Ute and Prireliee ef Faith (1667), p. 44. John Smith,
J Mytirit ef B/ulorique UuvatTd (1857), p. 237- Hnmon
~ Ulge, The AUioHee ef Divine Ofieei (166!)), p. 213. Charles
1, Chrt/ea! (ed. 1777), Yoi. 2, p. 12.
Dr. Johnson, under regard, in the sense of "relation, reference",
f qnotes only two passages ; and they are not quite satisfactory, as rather
Iffitemplifying the phrases with rri/ard of ani with regard to. The fol-
fc-lgwing quotHtions are more in point.
" Such as, in the Ketherlonds. hflye written, hnve , . . had cajnrrf
tnlo their only used speech, whereas, in. deed, the nnderstaading of the
' reference '. Both by reason of what they include,
and of what they omit, the very best of English
dictionaries are moat misleading. However, to
justify the old-fashioned ' in respect of, we might
even dispense with inquiring what significations for-
merly attached to respect, in other contexts.' Had
it meant 'poker', 'shovel', and 'tongs', still the
concretion 'in respect of\ and, equally, in 'respect
,/rom', or 'in respect againat', once established in
any sense or senses whatsoever, would, so long as it
continned thus established, have been good legiti-
mate English,
"In or icith reaped", we are instructed, "is an
idiotism, a phraseological construction of an adverbial
character," &c.' In comparmn, the same as 'compara-
Teutonic, uacd of our Saion aacetere, as also that of the ancient
Prancks, is most reqauite, and thereunto the present High, Low, and
Eastluudiah Teutoiiic, together, with respect unto the dependant
DHniah and Swedish, hesydes our modem vulgar English." Verstegan,
A Batitation, &c. (ed. 1605), The Epiatle, &c., adjinem.
" And though I denv not but this Father might have chief rrgard
to Christ, the mptical bread which came down from Heaven, ;et doth
not tliat hinder but he might nlao allude to what iras then matter of
fiLOl in (he celehratiDn of the euchorist." HamaD L'EjtriingG, The
AHianaof Strint OJian (1669), p. 176.
'' That God ilmightj should erect this etatdj fabrick of heaven and
earth, deelied with so rich and goodlj furniture, with oBpceial rrgard to
man, so pony and mean a creature," &c. Barrow, Watki, Vol. 2, p.
2e. Alao see pp. 04, 143, 220.
Addison tells of a man who, on reading the Biblical Btatistics of tba
■gea of Adam, Beth, and Mpthuselah, with the words " and he died '
at the end of each item, "immediately shut himself up in a convent,
and rotired frnra the world, as not thinking anything in this life
worth pursuing, whioh hod not regard to another." The Spectator,
No. 28fl.
' /h /mis, English'; but hardly has jiHf, for 'end', cvor been so,
'In respect ia' and "with respect to' Mr.MaTs\i a^^^wsa*, OT&.'^a
tiyely ', is a real speoimen of an adverbial phrase, aa
in the sentence : " Where the whole power of Israel,
400,000 strong, , . . fell before a few Benjamitea, a
small handful, in comparison ", &c.* But in respect or
icith reject is not, " in its ordinary modern use, . .
the equivalent of ' relatively '." Who says that ' up'
and ' down ' denote direction ' in respect, not abso-
lutely • P s
deems it inoambeat on httii Co render a reason for his approval of them.
If ha had been nwara that respect has, anning ita aignifications, ' rela-
tion ', 'reference', we may be aura he would not have resorted to the
gmtniteus specalatiou which he foiEts on us, as if fact. But see note
2 in this page,
' Biibo'^ Anirewee, ^iaeCy-tiz Sermons (eH. 1841-4), Vol. 1, p. 330.
Add in coni/qtietuie, for ' consequently ', Sea, for inatancEs, Barrow,
fTerlii, Vol. 3, p. 381 ; Southey, Find. Eecl. Angl, pp. 133, 383.
= Mr, Marsh, avowedly knowing nothing of the eiiatenoe of raped,
in the sense of 'relation ', 'reference', and thus hating no hisloiical
Mplaoation of 'in respect o/'', boldlj do^atizea, and lays dowo that
in nipect or uiith respect is " an idiotism '', &a. &c. ; and, a base being
thua ohtuned, one has only to tack to it the appropriate prepositiun, in
order to come by our in reipccl to, miih respect to. But proof
that his baae was ever in seo lie gives none ; and it appears to be,
with bim, purely hypothetical. Further, to the respect which it en-
telopes he abstains from attaching any definite meaning. Ihia base
we are to take as a whole, and be thankful. MureoTer, it is altogether
arbitrary, in him, to legislate that this base can, in propriety, he eked
out by no preposilJon but to ; no more scientific reaaoD than his per-
Eonal perception of the fitness of things conducting him to this conclu-
sion. Pbilology of this autocratic stamp can scarcely hope, after dis-
closure of what it assumes and implies, to win many adherents.
The phraees in retpixl and with respect, fur ' relatiTelj ', Aa., are, I
opprehelld, rare ; and, if only because of their rarity, it is highly un-
likely that they generated ' in respect n/', 'with respect to', &c. The
latter of them — though 1 have quoted Shakespeare's tcMeat re^ct :
see the note in p. SB, supra, — I bate nowhere clmnocd upon. Of tbe
former I subjoin instances.
" For that pact of Affiicke hntb bat of late receited the name of
Burbarie ; and some others rather thinke, that of this word Barbarous
Ibat <!oantrej cams to be called Barbaria, and hut few yearns. >n rf-
ISTUITIVB PHILOLOGY.
Mr. Marali's decision, touching ' in respect of, ia,
that, to signify 'relatively to', it "ia just aa gross a
(!peB(. agnne." Puttenhsra, The Arte of Eaglish foejii (1583), p. 210
ShHkespeare, Third Part of King Rcm\j VI., Act 5, t
" Onfllj the I
«hy.
'n raptft, nre tri&ea, tbinga of nought"
SBmuol RowktLcia, The lour Kmvei (1600— 1612?), p. 50 (eil. 13M).
" He attributed nato it ods onelj deaire, or first motion, eimplie ur
abBnluieliu, and another, comparativelie or in rtipect." Sir Arthur
Gorg^, TranslatioQ of Bacon's Be Sapientia Vetirum (ed. 1610), pp.
80, 81.
And compare tlifl following; "Te, howe wonderfully dye! a fewe
Bomajns, i'm regardt, not only defends this litel territjiFy a;|;aynst tbe
great numbre and puUwuice ofdyrera and aaudry p«ople," &ii. Sir
Ibomaa Elyot, Tlie Lnage of Oom-iiance (ed. 1544), fo!. (12 v.
" And, for crabs, tobstem, perewiutdes, &c., ia rtgard so plentUul
and common, are but of Utile valne." Kichard Franck, Nottha'n
Jfomoir* (ed. 169*), p. 181,
In regard, here, as in tbe passage from Sir Thomaa Elyot, imports
' OoraparatiYely '. Farther, by an ohsolato idiom, " for , , . are'' Li
for ■ as for I . . they are '. And Bimilarly interpret " for .... for .. .
have," in p. 6, tapra, lines 12, I'i; and compare the passage from
Aschniti in p. 47, tupra.
Respective and nepeetivchj. when meaning ' relative ' and ' reiatiye-
ly ', I may, also, as well exemplify.
" Heat, as concerning the homano sense at feeling, is a Torious and
riipeetivi I'auig." H, G., Tim Mturall and Sxpetinmitall Bis/oi-g of
Windi, &(.. {16S3), p, 27o. This work is translated from Bacon's Latin.
Alsn see Brnthwait, The Etigluh Qmtlaaan, p. 200.
" The evils of sin are of two aorta. Somo arc erill fonnally, simply,
and per ae Otheraome are evill onely rrspeetivelg, and by acci-
dent, but otberwise, in their owne nature, indifferent." Bishop San-
derson, Ticihi SermoHt (1037), p- d6. " Seapeclieely to the jostiee of
God", " reiptclivel^ to God's justice". Id., ibid., pp. 335, 337.
" An whole Cborch or nation is not justified absolutely, hot reipeet-
I'lto/y." John Eaton, The Honeg-eoiabe, &c., p. 92.
See, farther, Heylin, A Full Stlation, &o, (ed. 1666), To the Reader.
Uerpictive and mpeclirili/, for 'due' and ' duly ', though they were
anee very conunon, are not notived by Dr. Johnson and his suu'
Ui CHAPTEK m.
violation of English grammar as to write ' relatively
of, or ' in reference of." Tliat may, in ono age, be
Englisli grammar, which is not so in another age ;
for every age has its own standard of the grammati-
cal. It ia, however, going boyond a rejection of this
undeniable truth, to compare 'in respect o/' with
■ relatively of or ' in reference of. The former
was, during many generations, used by the best
writora ; whereas, with regard to the latter expres-
sions, Mr, Marsh does not even pretend that they
have ever appeared in literature, or that they are
anything but theoretic anomalies.' That they did
not become English, while 'independently of and
' irrespectively of did become English, was simply
from unaccountable fortuity ; and no more scrutable
reason why they were not vemacularized can be
given, than that they were not vemacularized. ' In
comparison of, whicli is still, to some extent, cur-
rent, ought to be equally bad English with ' in re-
spect of, in the eyes of Jlr. Marsh.
Against 'in respect of, in modem use, the only
maintainable objections are, therefore, its quaintness
and its ambiguity. It is just the kind of phrase to
be petted, as it is, by certain affcctationists." In old
' I ftm very far from tBying that they may not haie got into print
again and again. And, after all, ' relatively of is no Btranger llian
'in relation d/', for ' witb rernrence fo ', oidtnplified in the fullowing
extract from a lotler bearing thfl date of 1662.
" The whole i«luid [of Jersey] in generally rultd by the great court
Eo called in nlotion of ioieiioT Dniirte, of Khich hereajlor menttun ehall
bo made,'' ftc. N. Lempriere, in Mtmoriali of tht Great Civil War,
&c. (1842). Vol. 2, p. 406.
' In the nest note, Mr. Marsh ii quoted as objecting to ' in roBpecl
*■/■; ibst ic ia empioytid ia three aenK* 'In trapeot lu' has two
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY.
times, we tad. ' compliance lo ' an J ' lE complianLe
to'; and, at present, ■ (nVA is here our preposition.
Similarly, as respect, for ' relation ', ' reference ',
once took, in objective constructions, of, and now
takes only to, it is better for us, aDologically, — as it ia
better, if we would adhere to the preponderant usage
of our contemporaries, — to say ' in respect lo,' or
' with respect to '.'
eadtid. It is
s alirap clear, rrom the context
r made eynaDymoua with < by r
vMch of
and tlie attachmeat of this s
not uitftequently, designed to perplex
lighten.
' Our contempoiitry alTectere of ' in respect of, as Mr. Mnrsb juitlj
ujs, are, fur the most part, " so aniioua to parade it, oa a badge of the
■tjle of a icbool, that tlley drag it in on all occoaions where they van, bj
eaj chance, contriTe to introduue it; very often employing it in CUU'
BtrocCiotis that luaru it difficult to determine whotber theymeon're-
tutivoly to ', or 'by reason of, or 'in point of ; and the vague use of
the phraae, uf course, tends to embarrass tile reader by confonudugg,
in expression, things logically very distinct."
And this leads me to append a tew words on the phrase, in the sense
of ' in point of '. In a former nat«, I have alluded to a passage from
Tflloteon, which Dr. Johnson cites inappoeitely. It is tbis: "Every-
thing whivh is imporfvct^ as the world must be acknowledged in many
rilptclt, had some cause vrhich ptoduced it." Scapett beie denotes
'point' ; and it often occurs in the kindred seoses, — unreeogniled, like
that just menlionsd, by Mr. Uaroh and the dictionaries,— of ' object uf
DOnteniplatiou ', 'particular', 'matter', 'article', 'thing', and the
lilce. Cuwper writes, describing Mr. Throckmorton : " In paint 0/ in-
formation upon all important subjects, tn rtaptel, too, «/' expression and
addrea, and, in short, everything that enters into [be Idea of a gentle-
man, I have not found his equal, not often, anywhere.'' Worki, Vol.
6, p. 88. ' In respect of', lor 'in point of ', here used in connexion
with it, nnd instead of it, just to avoid lepeating the phrase, is not,
then, a creation of our century.
But a long detail wonld be required for an eihibilion of all the
shades of meaning which, in the antique 'in respect 0/", oppertain to
Titpicl, a word comparable, for its mullivocatni^HS, witb tbe Latin mC in.
Uf the vagueness of tbe phrosu in qutatiun there is suffieiml, -^reoot \^
the fact,— logo no further, — that it had, among V
One may gravely doul)t wliethor those who hazard
i statements aa have been adduced, or those who
I receive them, often apprehend distinctly the postu-
I lates which they involve.' That such statements are
I hirgcly taken on trust is evident fi'om the paucity of
I the contradictdona which they provoke. Yet, to risk a
I negative, expressed or implied, if perilous in any
is, ahove all, perilous, when it concerns an
I article of language. Even the most learned among us
I know, at present, but little of the history of the
I words and idioms which make up our speech. Who
I has read so much as a thousandth part of the English
E on the shelves of the British Museum P Thus much
I in bulk, provided it embraced the choicest and most
I, characteristic portion of our literature, would furn-
ish, if duly explored, something like a trustworthy
dictionary, a thing never to be expected, save as the
result of extensive cooperation, and judicious sub-
division of labour. In the mean lime, it can become
Lno one who values himself on possessing ordinary
f tiona, those of 'bj means of, 'on account o( ', and 'in conaequHnco
of ; thus Bometiines directing the attentina especmlly to the oonBider-
ntiun of cause, sometimes puinting la s raliocinatiTe justilieBtion, und
sometimes signalizing the aspect of effect or cegull.
Mr. Marsh enumerates thres groups of senses, — and they comprehend
the main aeneea, — which 'in respect wf' onoebore. Tlie history that he
gives of their fortmies does not ulfect mj' argument ; and, therefore,
vithout going into particulars, I only remark on it, that my own ac-
qsainlimce with English literature leads me to conclusions eomewhat
W ' livntley writes to John Evelyn, April 21, 1698 ; " I remamher you
■ toM me the pcrsoit that first used the word foreign in English. Pray
r write the story and bis name." The Correipeitdmee of Sichard Bent-
Its. fl-D-.P- 168.
How could either of these learned men believe such a thing to be
aseertaiaabla .'
INTUITIVE PHILOLOGY. 97
«
prudence, to imitate examples which a moment's re-
flection should suffice to discredit. Not to mention
the English of any bygone period, to master exhaust-
ively the English of our own time is beyond the
competency of any one man ; and, except where the
age of a word or phrase is strictly defined by some
chronological circumstance, as its derivation from
the proper name of some celebrity, who shall say,
with certainty, whether it is old or new, or an antique
proposed for fresh circulation? In all these and
such-like matters, theories and positive assertions are
much more wisely left unventured. Philology is no
province of ecclesiastics ; it is not a species of theo-
logy, half dogmatism and half denunciation. Its
materials are facts which admit of rigid verification ;
and its processes are simple applications of common-
sense.
CHAPTER lY.
As some words, inBtinctively avoided, are con-
stantly falling into desuetude, so others, often an-
swering to calls too Bubtile for analyaia, are constant-
ly presenting themselves as postulants for recognition.
The generality of those which are accepted ^row into
common use wholly unchallenged as to their pre-
tensions, and are practically old before they are found
out to be new ; their naturalness of aspect being
such, that, from the very first, they are not perceived
to be other than old acquaintances. A certain mi-
nority, however, are, too frequently, scouted ou the
Bolo avowed ground of their being strangers, and
are spurned with an impatience which refuses even
to scan their credentials dispassionately. There ia a
dim and undefined idea, too, that their introducers
deserve the imputation of conceit, or of presumption.
Why should they flatter themselves that they have
had the twofold fortune to detect a real desideratum
and to supply it ? Yet, as a positively futile word is
pretty sure, in our time, to get its deserts quite irre-
spectively of clamour, no interests could take harm,
if critics were to forbear violent speech about it ; and
iS propose]', after all, has only done what our groul-
t writers, to a man, have been doing time out of
PURISM.
mind. "It should be understood/' says Campe,
** that those who hazard innovations do not set up
for lawgivers in language : they only exercise a
right which every good citizen, in a free state, is
eager to exercise, — that of drawing.the public atten-
tion to a project of reform, the rejection or adoption
of which he contentedly abandons to the general
will, to the suffrages of the majority of the literary
republic/' ^ This is good sense, assuredly ; and yet
such innovators, and their devices with them, may
almost always calculate on being objects of disappro-
bation and protest, if not of ridicide. Cowper speaks
of some one as having " much the same aversion to a
Papist that some people have to a cat, — rather an
antipathy than a reasonable dislike.'* Among the
educated, and, in especial, among the most highly
educated, the same sort of feeling, with regard to
neoteric expressions, seems to be sedulously instilled,
and, by many, is reputed a mark of liberal training.
With them, as with Bacon, " the novelty and strange-
ness of terms " rank " among the badges of sus-
pected and falsified science."
The habit of denouncing new words indiscri-
minately, which too many scholars appear to con--
sider as an argument of true scholarship, has been
derived to us from the Roman classics. " I suspect *',
says Lord Lytton, "that every great writer of a
nation a little corrupts its tongue. His knowledge
suggests additions and graces from other tongues ;
1 The Monthly Magazine,\o\. 21 (1796)/p. 613. TVifc \x"?>Xi^'85ass^
is by "William Tajlor.
^
100 CHAPTER IV.
his geuius applies imd makes them popular." ' And
he goes on to instance Milton, Voltaire,' La Fon-
taine, and others, as furiiishiog justification of his
dictum. And this we have from one who figures,
without risk of rivalry, as the most wholesale and
popularly influential corrupter of our language that
modem days have produced.' Do languages, then,
sometimes hurst upon the world incorrupt, as
Minerva issued fully equipped from tho hrain of Jove ?
Lord Lytton, as his own attempts at improving Eng-
lish demonstrate, must have relinquished his theory,
' J!»^limr! and lAe £nff!iih (eA. 1833),yt.l 2, p. 129.
' It hofl been asMrtcd thnt Voltaire " did not dare, in his niimerouB
compoBitiodB, to add n word or BspreasioD, Or eren to hazard ona of >
preceding aatbor, however approved, beeaaBO it h&d not tlis uinction
of the Academy," Williain Dupre, Ltxieograpkia Ji'toloi/ice GsUieo
(IBOl), PrefacB, p. liv.
On the other hanil, M. Francia Wey g:ives, as neoterisms Banctioned
hy Voltaire, aiitocmlria, iermtir, ir&laile, iuiarderie, ftlomningraphi,
iibarhariier, dieidrur, dffimvreur, dtptri^tuUt; dHhiertr, douWr,
fatuimi, hiflrioaiqut, infaimblt, itijouable, itueeonnile, r'nvMirfii, ini'ri-
_fique, pampili^tieT, pBlauper, Img^difa, vagiiaemeiit, vthhsrie. Renar-
gUH tiitr la Ltttviiie JVowfoi'w, &c., VoL 1, pp, 177 — 184.
By Bome of these wordB the French langnsge wan, unqneationably,
enrighed. Bnt it derived no amelioratdon trom Buch spellings as M,
eafiHU, ttms, and the like, which Voltaire gave hia udheeinn to, not-
withatanding hii expressed opinion, that " c'cst le propre des barhares
d'abre^ tons lea tnota."
That Voltaire did not regnrd Frencli as incapable of fiirther im-
provement U plnin enongb from the sayinfr attributed to him : " Notre
lan^e eat nne gnenee flSre ; il fant loi faire raamune maluT^ etle."
• Lord Lytton, in hia What unll he do Willi U f, makes Oolond
Morlay (p'oan out against teitgram: "Oh that I should live to
■ee Eucb a word introduced into the English language ! " There is
a repnlatve affoetednesa in this, aeaing wham it comes from, — a wiitet
that has given his countenance to barealiim, pkanliniaalian, supeniittn-
roof
fdl n.
«Cft.(.
little nvmipitlar. It was the like of this jargon that enmged Fan
frmel to eiciaim : " Que diable de langnaige est cecy \ Par Dieu, tt
et quelquB heretieqae."
that he can lay his finger on any past stage of oup
speech, OS that which ought to hiive been ite final
form. If, further, it be a charactei'istic of a great
writer to corrupt hia mother- tongue a little, Lord
Lytton, unleaa just the reverse of such a writer,
must be a very great one indeed. Against the lack
of discernment betrayed in the preceding quotation
may be set the comment of Hallam, who, adverting
to the first half of the seventeenth century, remarks,
that " the French were very sti-ong in translations
from the classical writers ; and to this they are, cer-
teinly, much indebted for the purity and correctness
■which they reached in their own language." ' As to
ourselves, a student must be exceedingly inobservant,
not to have perceived how deeply we arc beholden to
the happy daring of translators for the amplitude
and variety of our diction, and for the flexibility of
our consti'uctions.'
I iHtroduclioH to Ihi Zireralmv 0/ J'Mrojw (ed. 1847), Vol. 3, p,
13a.
° " The great pest of speBUh is frequeacy nf tranalution," aaTS Dr.
Johnson, in tUa Prefnee to his Dktiutiars ." unci, stiU more ahsurdly, he
adds the wieb, Ihut, if we evtr buve lui English Academy, iu mem-
bera, "inshiad of ooinpiling gramniBra and dictionaries," may "en-
deavour, with all their inflaunce, to stop the licence of tnuiBliit'>rs,
whose idleness and ignonmce, if it be suffered to proooed, will reduM
us to bnbhlo a dialect of France,"
Sotithey says, in part »ery ddsputably, that translatorB, "in later
(iinBa,liase onrrapted our idiom as much a*, in early ones, they enrich-
ed our Tocabulary." CoUoquiet, &.a. (cd. 1831), Vol. 3, p. 307.
"An eminent prolate of our Church " is quoted, by Euaden, as say-
ing : "There is no way of writing bo proper for the refining and
polishing a language, as the translating of books into it, if he who
undertakes it has a competent skill of the onti loagne, and is a niastvr
of the other. The Frtncih took no ill method, when they
iut«adcd to reform aud beautify their luiigunge, in settijig theic Wt.
" I eooceive," saya HazKtt, " that words are like
money, not the worse for being coninion, but that it
ia the stamp of custom alone that gives them circu-
lation or value. I am fastidious in this respect, and
would almost as soon coin the currency of the reuhn
as counterfeit the king's English. I never invented,
or gave a new and unauthorized meaning to, any
word bat one single one, — the term impersonal, ap-
plied to feelings ; — and that was in an abstruse
metaphysical discussion, to express a very difficult
distinction." ' But, if the deoiaiona of custom are
not to be referred, in the mass, to a fixed chrono-
logical point, like the birth of a philosopher, or the
extinction of a tyrant, why should this original and
ingenious diasertator have chosen to invest himself
in a strait-jacket, and to deny himBelf the permission
which almost every real thinker, in every age, has,
probably, challenged to himself?
I offer no apology for introducing the following,
from the pen of the enlightened and liberal Arch-
deacon Hare :
" Though our language, like everything, and, in-
deed, more, almost, than anything else which wo
have inherited from our uncSstora, is to be regarded
with dutiful veneration, that veneration ia not to be
merely pa83ive,-^iu which case, it would soon de-
generate into idolatry, — but active. It is not to be
put aside and lockt up as an heirloom, but to be em-
ployed, and cultivated, and improved, as an estate.
irriters on work b> tmnslnte the Greek and Latin aatbore lati
TAi Oitnrdiiin. Nn. 164.
■ Tabk-tatk (ed. 18-18), Yul. % pp. 115, 116.
We are to uphold our native language, but not the
impurities it may, in course of time, have contracted
irom ignorance, or indolence, or caprice. On the
contrary, we uphold it best, by freeing it from theae
impurities. We are to cull forth its pliistic powers,
and to adapt it to the new ideas it is to clothe. Like
magic armour, it will fit every form and stature.
The only requisite is, that he who puts it on should
be a true knight." '
Not for every one, however, would it, by any
means, do to invent terms for himself, or even to
venture on any but such as have become well estab-
lished; and it is far too common, now-a-days, for
^. young men, "directhry on being made free of a maga-
.■.^^Sine.Tlf STa newspaper, to commence word-coiners.
Gray - writes to Dr. Beattie : " I would not i
ol. 1 (1832), pp. flJo, 04(1.
tttion of Uraj'a herilage. .
>r Lud tlien, a better Ruil pui
> Tie Philological Msietait, 1
' "'AntijBo' a the wort-l p
boaest truth, ve aeitliec hare, n
than be, nltbough he lived in tbo time uf the pureat iLnd besl, Gold-
mnith, Starae, Fielding, aud Inchbald." Lundar, The Last Fruit off
m Old IVw, p. 107.
Further, oe to one vemacokr at ita heat, writing lo Mr. Henry
Crabb Robinaon, — see his Diary, ke.. Vol. 2, pp. G21, £22, — he saya,
regarding EUa'i Msmyt, by Charles Lamb ; "The pKpera are admir-
able ; tbe langunge, truly EngUah. We have none better, ne« or old."
Who hut Landor, iu ruDent timoa, would have ohjeoted to " an-
tiflw'"? Letting tliiapiuB, as Johnson, oHer recogni/ing but one set
or " wi^Us of English undeSled ", admitted the existence of others, bo
Landor, forgetting that ho had restricted the pert'eutiaD of our lail-
gnage to the days uf Queen Elizabeth and JuntVB I., Urdt eitcndud
ita dorstion to the lime of Milton, and then EubaCitnted, in pluce of
both those periods, the ai<i:and half of the lust uentory. Vide iiipru,
pp. ID, and 13, H,
But is Grny'« Gngliil;, from the ordinary point of view, altogolher
Taultless i Look at bis verbs eombuttle, deballutc, tiMmrvait, xmdsftat ;
his Bubauntires aurmabiiil!/, critiaalUj/, Ituctihoty, pei'/tctumttwiA,
104 CHAPTER IV.
new words, without great necessity : it is very ha-
zardous, at best." ^ On this remark, which is cited
only for the sake of its pendant, the learned Scotch-
man annotates : '^ I would as soon make new coin as
knowingly make a new word, except I were to in-
vent any art or science where they would be neces-
sary." Undoubtedly, it was prudent, in Dr. Beattie,
if he would deliver himself in a foreign language, —
and even this was beyond his power, — simply to
take it, to the best of his ability, as he found it.^
rinfreseativey zealotism ; bis adjectives inutile, marturientf verisimile ;
his anent ; his preterites begun, run, and throtoed ; and his past par-
ticiples broke, chose, and wrote. Add his deduct for ' deduce ', perform
for * erect ', set for * sit ' ; power for * quantity ' ; bad for * sick *, better
for *more', like for* likely*; a cherubim; "none but they**, "no-
body but /"; " I have seen nothing, neither''; "nor drink out of
nothing hut" ; "everybody . . . them**.
In his Progress of Foesy, furthermore, he violates all idiom by
writing :
" Her track, where'er the goddess roves,
Olory pursue, and generous Shame".
1 Works (cd. Mitford, 1858), Vol. 4, p. 311.
2 Speaking of the injury which our language has received, from
various quarters, in recent times, Southey says, that, " to this injury
the Scotch have greatly contributed ; for, composing in a language
which is not their motber-tongue, they necessarily acquire an artificial
and formal style, which, — not so much through the merit of a few, as
owing to the perseverance of others, who, for half a century, seated
themselves on the bench of criticism, — ^has almost superseded the ver-
nacular English of Addison and Swift." Colloquies, &c., Vol. 2,
p. 297.
According to Dr. Priestley, under the date of 1761, " he must be
prejudiced to a degree that deserves ridicule, who will not aUow that
several of the most correct writers of English are Scotsmen." The
Rudiments of English Grammar, &c., p. 6.
" Why ", much more critically, asks an anonymous writer, " why
should a Scotsman, who is ashamed of nothing else belonging to his
country, be ashamed of its dialect ? It is to English what the Doric
was to pure Greek, — adorned with rustic graces which have long b^ea
We can easily beKeve, if only on the Blowing of the
' single sentence here quoted from him, that English
would Lave undergone no improvement at hia hands.
Townley and Beckford are not known to have at-
tempted any reforms or additions in Prench ; Milton,
Mathias, and Landor attempted none, I believe, in
Italian; and Dr. Beattie's self- distrust, just like
theirs, may be commended, as a safe precedent, to
the mob of neoterists.
Thousands of words and uses of words, on their
first appearance, or revival, as candidates for ver-
nacularization, must have met with repugnance, ex-
pressed or unexpressed.' As for those to which re-
I fi'lt and acknowlodged in the poetry of that country. Wby, then,
should it not be to!«raled io histoi-y, eBpeoially eince Bipariencp lias
ghevrn, that no utforta of their beet writers bave been able wholly to
avoid it?" Tl,r QuaHerly Revitw, Vol. 9 (1813), p. 433.
Would that this welUmGanl intflrrogatDrj' advica were taken. Of its
soundness I am conBlantly reminded utiesb and alresh. To talis a cei-
loin London joiirnal o( wide oircnlation, The Daily Ifetct, what reader
L of it. unlen a thorough trans-Tneedian in his conceptions of the
I British tongue, bat mnst vieh that it spontaneondy praetieed broad
I Bootdi, nutead of Tainly attempting Siiglisb 1 Unless trained, &om
L hia Tory infancy, ia the use of oar langunge, a Scotchman who tries
to write it is pretty Burs to reveal hia nBtionality in less Idme than. —
to Bpeak Hith Sydney Smith, — he takes tu licrateh himeelf.
' " It would form an interesting esaay, or, rather, aeriea of essays,
in a periodical work, were aU the attempts to ridicnle new phrnse<i
broDght togetber, the proportion obeerved of words ridiculed which
hate been adopted, and are now common, — mch an ifmiuoiu, eon-
leioiu, &c., — and a trial made bow far any grounds can be detected,
,t DOS might determine beforeliand whether a word was invented
Dnder ths conditions of aseimihihility to our language, or not. Thus
I much ii certain, that the ridicnleis were as often wrong as rig-bt ; and
[ Shakeapeare biiOBelf oonld not prevent the naturaltiatioD of aeeoHmio-
f ialioH, rmmwrafiiMi, &c., or Swift, the groas abtiso even of the uoril
Cul-ridge, A'olea aid Icdwc iipim SAaimptart, &c,. Vol. I,
I pp, 27S, 270.
pugnauce was expreased, wiien ttey were unfamiliar,
or actually new, or were taken to be so, or for whicli
it seemed necessary to offer more or less of apology,^
Tho trinl UetB Buggestcd has never, to my knowledge, been Berionsly
undertaken ; and to eietnte sncoessfullj- the attempt which Coleridge
rtuommeads iruuld ecu-cely bo possible to an; one persun, tbough ever
BO diligent an inTestigator.
Besides tmuKiiiua snd airsBumi), not only tbe unregrottitble falwUt,
furiiuHd, glibbiry, luirical, magnificalt, oiMrmil, olmligi^act, pn-
Tumpid, turgiAita, and veatatit^, but barmy, ehilblaiaed, clmiuy, dmnp,
dijiinet, incuiuii, nifiati, pvffy, riaproeal, and rHmgradt are derided,
by Ben JonBon. in The Poetaster.
Touohing Shakespeare's alleged diElike of aeamtntodation, Mr. De
Quincey falla into the came error with Coleridge, of whom he ia, not
unl^equentlf, little more than an eubo. Gee hia Worka (ed. 1S63),
Vol. 6, p. 61,
Acetmmodaled is the word whicli Shallow taken out of Bardolph's
month, and hurpa upon; and it is Bardolph's misuse nf it, not bis
using it, that Shakespeare ridtculea. Compare CymlKliiie, Act 5,
Scene 3.
Nor has Sbakeapeare any objsotion to rcmimeratian. The manner
in whiuh Costard plays on it proves nuthing. Compare Treiliia and
Civuida, Act 3, Scene 3.
In ehurt, bb to Coleridge, his memory not seldom playfd him falsa.
One of the words which ho adduces Is touchtd un bj Ben Jonson.
'' You are not to cast a ring for the perfumed terms of the time, as
aecBmmodalion, cotnpltmcnl, iipirit, &c., hut uso them properly in their
place, OB otbera." Timber, Perepicuitru.
In the CuriaiUici o/ Literature (ed. 1866), VoL 3, p. 25, we read,
in a foot-nuto : " Sliakespeote makes 'Ancient Pistol' use anew-coined
Italian word, when he speaks of being ' better aammmodatcd ' ; to tbe
great ddight of Juatico Sliallow, who eiclaims: 'It comes from
HfleoBiBiorfo, It good phrase '."
Shallow, in searching for an etymology, would most naturally go,
us he beTB seems tu have gons, to the Latin. Nor is it certain that
the Italian gave us aceommodBle. In A World of Wondrri, from tbe
French, published in l<iD7, the verb occm's ot pp. 121, 216, 237, twice
tu translate aeaimiuadtr.
' Among the words specified in the pages immediately following,
there are some which, thongh now current, were, us is gntherod
from the comments evokod by them, onoo in abeyance, or, at uU uvents,
uic fuuud stated, or intimated to have been so.
PURISM. 107
it is curious to observe how many of them have
gained a permanent place in our language. Of such,
to the extent of several hundred, with the comments
suggested by them, scattered over our literature, I
have prepared a collection. Perhaps a few excerpts
from it will not be unacceptable.
The time was when our homely gown was so novel
a name as to invite denunciation.^
Sir Thomas Elyot, writing in 1531, terms the
word maturity^ "straunge anddarke"; industry h.Q
calls ** straung " ; he speaks of modesty as " not bee-
ing knowen in the Englysh tongue " ; and of magna-
nimity , as ** beeing yet straunge^ as late borowed out
of the Latine ".^
1 *'The Commons were besotted in excess of apparel, in wide
surcoats reaching to their loyns ; some, in a garment reaching to their
heels, close before, and strowling out on the sides, so that, on the
back, they make men seem women ; and this they call by a ridiculous
name, gown^ Camden s MemainSj &c., pp. 252, 253.
Gown, it thus seems, was the name of a man's garment, before it
was the name of a woman's.
A manuscript work, entitled Eulogium^ referred to the time of
Edward III., is here professedly quoted. If in English, not only its
spelling, but its language, must, of course, have been modernized.
Barnabe Eiche was distressed at piccadilly^ both the name and the
thing. "But he that, some fortie or fifty yeares sithens, should have
asked after b. pickadillyy I wonder who could have understood him, or
could have told him what dipickadiUy had beene, either fish or flesh".
The Honestie of This Age (1614), pp. 37, 38 (ed. 1844).
Did Biche suppose that the st aider articles of apparel had come
down, with their names, from before the Flood ?
* Except where a word remarked on is part of a sentence, I exhibit
it in its present form.
3 The Governour (ed. 1580), fol. 71, 73, 78, 173.
In fol. 78, manstietude is spoken of as *' beeing, semblablye, before
this time unknowen in our tongue ". Puttenham uses it.
From a remark in fol. 201, it appears that intellectus bad not yet
become intellect.
" Sir Thomas Elyot, writing in 1534, speaks of Ike no^ ^^xcSi^Kt
In the same year, it was deemed necessary to
gloas, a.s being archaisniB, the substantives bchent,
chieftain, desert, tkralh, thraldom}
According to Richarde Willea, despicable, destruct-
ive, homicide, imbibed, o^^qniom, ponderous, porletitous,
and prodigious were novelties in 1577.*
wonli /ruf a/ill/, temperance, aoiritfi/, and magnmrimHji, as bring tlien
nnt in general ane in England." Tki WettminsUr Sevient, Vi;l. H
(1831), p. 86.
Eljot'a omi eriticiama On these terma I am annlile to give.
Frngality I find iu TTdall'a ApopMhcgw (1542), fol. 90.
' Tkfi equiialento given are prowiim, captain, wilderuta, handineii,
bandas'- 8ae Thu Markian ItuaiUmiy (ed. Oldya and Park), Vol,
6, p. 91. It U vturds in Tke Praier and Ctmiplaynte oftht Fkieiman
mtto Chriiti that are there explained.
At p. 98 ot the folame jmst referred to, hiryiagt a glosaed by
"worship, praise."
Hieron, in The Pnacher't Flea, Che Dedication to which is dated
160*, writes : " It mny seeme Bopcriiuoas to draw the paoplH "to hear-
ing Dpon the weeke-dsyea, when moa are otherwise in their worldly
affuirca to bee omployed." IToria (ed 1624), Vol. 1, p. 539.
" I hare learned since, that he ... . has a mother, between
Eerentj and eighty, who walka, every Sunday, eight niilea to li/ariHg,
KB they cull it, and beet again." Oourper, W^orka, Vol. 7, pp. 37. 38.
In Cowper'a time, hear was atili largely useiI, by some people, for
'attend divine serrice', oipecLallj for the purpose of listening to the
senaoD. See The Literary Churekman, 1868, p. 1S4, May it not b«
that the hearing in question was, originally, hiryingi f Sury, ' wor-
ship ', wna not too old for Spenser.
' Willes, in TAi Hiitory of Travayle, &o., Frifaa unia tin Header.
edJlHtm. here glances at what he looks upon us pednDtrioa in Eicharde
Edon. " Many of hia Englyshe woordes ", he aaya, " cannot be ei-
cuaed, iu niy opinion. Tot amellyog to mnch of the Latine." Inateutt
of the tenni whiuh he critiuzes, Willes tells us he would haie law,
nuisome, laanttaughter, dnmkm, dutiful, leciglity, viondtrful, and
itKiietniu. Among nnnatuntlized worda used by Eden, Wilica object*
to aatiquet, diltoniiriet, deminatoft, lalieilale, the snbatilutes proposi^d
for whicli are a'leicHt (aic), tu^ti, hrda, tarefut. Jhminaior
uied by Pnttenham.
Willi*, nt the end of his " Preface unto Iho Reader ", gives us
idea who, in 1577, were accounted preeminently good writera
English :
PURISM. 109
*
Sir Philip Sidney, who died in 1586, using the
word diction, prefixes to it the parenthesis "as I
may tearme it." ^
George Puttenham, under the date of 1589,^ notes,
as neoteric, compendious, declination, delineation, di-
mension, figurative, function, harmonical, idiom,^ im-
pression, indignity, inveigle, method, methodical, me-
trical, numerous, obscure, penetrable, penetrate, placa-
tion, prolix, refining, savage, scientific,^ significative,
&c. &c.^
— -^
*' I have not, for every worde, asked counsayle
Of eloquent Eliot, or Sir Thomas Moore [sic].
Take it, therefore, as I have intended:
The faultes, with favour, may soone he amended."
Willes's edition of Eden's work was oh my hook-shelves ; hut I did
not know what was to he found there ahout words, until I happened
to be turning over the Curiosities of Literature.
Sir John Harington, in A Briefe Apologie of Poetrie^ &c., prefixed
to his translation of the Orlando Furioso (1591), says that the Earl of
Surrey and Sir Thomas Wyatt " are yet called the first refiners of the
English topg".
^ An Apologie for Foetrie (ed. 1868), p. 68. IHction is used only
once hy Shakespeare ; and it is where he makes Hamlet reply to Osric
in an afiected style of phraseology which has come, most unjustly, to
he called euphuism.
Donne, in his Folydoron (1631), p. 62, has " diction^ or word **.
2 The Arte of English Foesie, pp. 121—123.
3 ** Ye finde also this word idiome, taken from the Greekes, yet serv-
ing aptly, when a man wanteth to expresse so much, unles it he in
two words, which surplussage to avoide, we are allowed to draw in
other words single and asmuch significative/*
At p. 120, Puttenham tells us that he intends, hy idiomj "mother-
speach". At p. 86, he writes of the place where a "sharpe accent
falls, in our owne ydiome^ most aptly and naturally".
Gahriell Harvey, before Puttenham, namely, in 1680, had used
idimne^ and in the sense it now bears. Ancient Critical Essays, &c.,
Vol. 2, p. 281 . He was followed, in the time of James I., by Edmund
Bolton, in his Hypercritica, Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 262.
* This ia the first of his own strange terms whicli P^t.\»Div«B!L
enumerates.
s [Note in the next page.]
110 CHAPTEU IV,
TakingrevengeonTloma'^Nash Gab eU Harvey
taxes him with having iorged a ni s hapen rabble-
ment of absurd and ridiculous woids the proper
bodges of hia new-fangled figure cilled foolrisme " ;
and he instances sacr !eg ousl / co /a n noted, humour
vnconTeraable, interfuse di^p tat e 1 ei maphrodite
phrases, declamaf,ori/ stjks and censor a! m oralisers.^
This was in 1593.
In The Knate of CI bh bv 'Samuel Rowlands,
Qt pnliUt».[iiir\ he writes: "Tliis word|"alflo, ia reioived from the
FrcEohmen, but, at ftia day, uaunll in Court, and with ail good secre-
tunee : and caanot ilnde nn En^liall word to match him ; fur, to have
said a man politiqut had not hene aa wel. hicaase, in tmeth, that had
beno nd more than to have said a civil pereoD. Poliiiea ia rather ' a
Barvcjour oF ciTilitie' than 'civil', & a 'publiiguu miniat«r or aaon-
aeller in tlie Stale '".
" Aa aaiuMilinff and nunurajirVy. Puttenham adds : " But perad-
venture (& I could bring a raaeon fur it) many other like words, bor-
rowed out of ths Latin and French, were not so well to be aUovred by
na; as thone words : aiidiiiiiina,(nT'bo\i' ; fttea«ditie,toi'e\ciqaBDae';
egrtgiimi, for 'great'or 'notable'; implttf, tm ' replenuhed ' ; at-
ItmpM, for ' attempt 'i mmpatitle, for 'agreeable in nature', and
Puttenham being criticaUy choice in hia diction, it is interesting to
see what Icrma used by bin ace now obsolete. Among them are the
Babatantites aimian, amisffi, applautioH, tain, braggery, eonfeaal,
ditafqiuiiHlarua, tpithalawy, fitlitls, heyteaTd, kealifttueta, impli-
oatiBt, mantofludt, vterrndst, nummmlg. olialion, panwmml, pnJeiMt,
r^aicemenl, niniM, rm-imijiut, mofa-y, liteU, riciotil!/ ; tlw adjec-
tiicB eon/mi, imporlimt, ineMmaaibh, UimrabU, liminmti, tderaUt,
t/ippcr, terniitiatlt, HplaHdiii; the lerba aeknmc, appaaiBnatt, diit-
givrlt, exoruifii, foregrav/, mttten, pntp/mt, tohislick, Irmlaei; the ad-
verbs gperlly, britaly ; and the prflposition heliilher.
• Fiircdt Superiroffaliou, pp. 178, 179 (in Areheim, Vol. 2).
Harvey also Bpecifias dnmidale ergonisl. The grief of Harvey wna
natural, at being pelted with ta myaterioue a miaaile aa tbia epithet.
" Tbb is the first part of The Fuur Ei,av<s. The verses quoted are
from the edition of 1844, p. 29.
PURISM. Ill
published in 1600, " Signieur "Worde-monger, the
Ape of Eloquence," is made to say :^
" As on the way I itenerated \_sic],
A rurall person I obviated.
Interrogating times transitation.
And of the passage demonstration.
My apprehension did, ingenious, scan
That he was meerely a simplitian.
So, when I saw he was extravagant.
Unto the obscure vulgar consonant,
I bad him vanish most promiscuously.
And not contaminate my company." ^
^ Verstegan writes : "I wil not cloy the reader with .... the re-
peating of such lyke discourses as hee used, that told, how, as hee
itinerated, hee obviated a rurall person, and, interrogating him con-
cerning the transitation of the tyme, and the demonstration of the
passage, found him a raeer simplician ; whereas, yf, in his true speech,
he has asked him what was the clock, and which had bin his way, his
ignorance might of the simplician have bin enformed in both." A Res-
titution, &c., pp. 205, 206.
The date of this is 1605. Verstegan must, therefore, have taken it
from the first edition of The Knave of Clubbs (1600).
2 The majority of the words here grouped together for ridicule have,
I need scarcely say, — the pedantic or Latinistic use of them being laid
aside, — since become good English.
It is curious to observe how long promiscuously has been abused in
one way or other. Richard Franck wrote, in 1668 : " But we relinquish
these pleasant streams of Errit, to patrole the fields of Cooper, in
Angus, where Scotland's great General (the Earl of Leven) was born
promiscuously of obscure parents." Also: **The day, as prenoted,
promiscuous and gloomy." Northern Memoirs (ed. 1694), pp. 129,
147.
Simplician is used by several writers, as in The Comical History of
Francion (1655), Book 6, p. 2; and by Heylin, in A Full Relation,
&c. (1656), p. 40. Eumanitian occurs in Chettle, Kindhart's Lreame
(1592), p. 33 (ed. 1841) : Gabriell Harvey, Fierce^ Supererogation
(1593), p. 148 (in Archaica, Vol. 2): Heylin, ^Bxatnen Historicum
(1659), Part 1, p. 129. Naturian, William Watson, A Decacordon,
If we may believe Yerstegan,' equip was quite
unintelligible, at least in "the north partes", "not
many yeares past".
In A World of Wonders,^ 1607, turhmt, an old
spelling of turban, is found marginally explained by
ioUbante.
King James's revisers of tlie Bible, in avoiding
holocausts, prepuce,^ rational* and tunic, pique tbem-
selvea, as we learn from their Preface, on having
" shunned the obscuritie of the Papists." °
Mabbe, in his admirable translation of Aleman's
romance, explains, in the margin, mosquito^ and
mulafa.''
&V. (1602), pp. 3*1, 338. Ommadan. Gabriell Harvey, Pitrc^a
Bnptfervgation,^. 186. Thealerian. Dakker, S«(i.o-mns!i> |1602),
Big. 1 3 T. Still worse, as tp stjmology, \t hmigarian, lor 'a hungry
person ". See Dekter, A ffniyA/t Coiyuriug (1607), p. 31 {A 1842) :
Samuol Rowlanda, The Four Knatts, p. 110.
' See a story in his A Ri'slUiiUim of Ltenyed Intelliffeiiee, p. SOS.
' P. 236. Alao nee p. 317, where the BpeUinga are (iirimiWand tali-
banl, the Intter of which ta also^tttlenham'e apcUing, while Naih, in his
Laitm Stupi (1698), has titriitHlo. At p. 239, letritatich is eiplain«d
to mean " a quatrain or staffe of touro versca."
^ "Castalioa'fl BMant-penu ia as absunl, in French, aa the Hcmists'
pnpiiee ia, in Engliah." A If'orld of Wenileri, p. 77, marginal note.
' Dr. Timothy Puller, in his Moderation of the Church of England,
&c. {1679), Chapter 4, omita thia word, and very diiingcnnonsly. Ba the
reader will see, if ha looks into the matter. Aiymes and patehe com-
pleta the list of the Bible-reviMrB.
» Dr. Heylin, in his Obiatstiona, io. {1B66). p. 3., remarking on the
phraaealogy of the Romish Eaglisb Bible, enumerates, as among- its
" worda utterly unknown to any English render, unlegaa well-grounded
and inatmctcd in the learned languagea " : ufguiailion, adulieratt,
advent, eondiffti, domimcal, tvnruate, hoil, lanvei, neophf/l«, paraeltle,
pnvarieator, preaenea, propotition, reprepiliate, rtaaacittlt, aab&atiim,
violimi. I ahull not stop to comment on thia list.
> " X.at. cuiex, ' a gnat,' which the Spsniarda call hy the nama of
moaguito." The Sogm (od, 1623), Part 1, p. 233.
' "Mulala IB a maid-child that is borne of a negni and a fape man.
PURISM. 113
Dr. Peter Heylin, writing in 1625/ by joining to
infantry the apologetic words " as the martialists term
it," intimates that the expression was not yet in com-
mon use. Agreeably to the same author : " Plunder,
both name and thing, was unknown in England till
the beginning of the war ; and the war began not
tiU September, Anno 1642 ''}
Philemon Holland, having used little nephew,^ to
denote the kinship of Cyrus to Astyages, has the
side-note : " Or grandchild, as some will have it.'^ *
and so on the contrary. And, because it is an extraordinary mixture,
they compare such a one to a mule." Ibid.^ Part 2, p. 328. Negra,
for * negress *, occurs again in Part 2, p. 261.
Our present unetymological ttiulatto M^as long in getting settled.
**The rich molotto lady, I presume ?" Hurlothrumbo (1729), Act 2.
1 A Full Relation, &c. (1656), p. 261.
2 Examen Historicum (1659), Part 1, p. 248. To this statement
Fuller offers a slight amendment, in asserting, that " the xmrnQ plunder *'
began, in England, ** some months, the practise thereof, some weeks,
before our war.'* Tl^ Appeal of Injured Innocence, &c. (1659), Part
3, p. 50.
3 By his little nephew^ an expression elsewhere unknown to me,
Holland seems to imply, that nephew, in its present acceptation, was
coming into use. But, if nephew was to be allowed its new sense,
little nephew, as significative of a relation different from nephew, ought
to mean * nephew's child '.
* Cyrupcedia (1632), p. 7. At p. 116, Holland has nephewes, with
the marginal annotation : *' Children's children, — as we say unproperly,
grandchild7'en.'*
At p. 178, miriades is explained by "ten thousands." Holland
might be quoted largely for information as to what words used by him
were novelties. Among his inventions is otacusts, p. 118, interpreted,
in the margin, by " privy escouts." He must have been of a sanguine
temperament, if he supposed that posterity would consent to Anglicize
Holland, if read, especially in his final work, for philological ends,
might easily mislead. He was forty-nine years old when, in 1600, he
published his translation of Livy ; and he put his last hand to his
Cyrupaedia in 1629. His manner of writing never changed; and,
8
Miltou,' under the date of Hi49, calls denwgognes
" this goblin word ".
Seven years later, Heylin, named juat above, com-
ipiled " An Alphabetical Table,^ containing the Un-
while hepropoBodnewworda without end, he rejected, in his language,
aimoat nothing that he found ealnhlishBd. Even in Sir Thomaa Mora
there is litllo whioh ho thought bo far witiquated na lo be given up ;
and herein he wrts markedly peculiar.
t' Eikimoklaalei, Chapter i. Mill«n here refers to h passage in the
^im Baailikt, Chapter i : " Who wore the chief demagogtiH and
^patronei of tnmults," &e.
' It ia giveu at the eud of Obtfrwitiona, &s. (1G66). I pass "bj the
TTOTlla which Heylin taxes his author with using in new aonaGij^ and,
Iif those which he colla "uncouth and anusuall", I hy no mem i'
£s^c|ibe all, in the catalugue which follows. Abitrua, aogvicKi,
aieguat; adoption, adcmlitieiu, alleviatt, amphibiout, amm«di>*rt,
Wtagenitl, mpirae, camalilff, chimgrapAy, datiatlnT, catniHRuHraf^
MirifimMfi'. eomplaeBteii, complieali, conadt, amnnle, eonfraliniitg, eul-
ptMlitg, deprtdntum, ttetpandence, dapnndias, dntinalion, dual, wiStyo,
tmerge, imnymt, imtluMfnt, equilHraU, tr»ifitate, a-udition, evaenali,
aeogitalt, txeoriiUe, exuitranOf/, foHuitatitly, smaitialt, gnlalian, gmt,
htctie, hibtrnat, holocaust, horiimtal, liypMJiait, iilentils, I'MOiHimt,
impedt, impcttauilg, impurity, immiiblt, inavpicieH; inmHtatieii,
iHturiantif, ineurioui, individuaiiim, ii^mi, inhume, iaitialioti, ituT'
injuitCudt, luimw, iHlerfin, iiUiriect, iHtrimie, irrilate,
liitorwfwB, luminarf/, luxariancy, magnttit, melwrate, mfreuriatitt,
\-4MtatmrphtH; mirtaterf/, meih, moi'iua. narriiter, natt, nonmua, nex-
I, ituie, oUigue, oseuU, tOHbo", odium, offertory, emm, anaraut,
spiiu, organieal, pact, plaeailf, pondtroui, partmlaur, pre-
n, pnposiertiit, pmariealian, radiant, rancidity, rocipreeate, re-
Wlluttitn, refuSymt, relax, npertory, respond, retrntion, rcttrhtrMiott,
ktmr, ittntillation, ie4«loia, letiei, tterile, Himulale, alipu-
, ttricturt, mptffelatioH, supinely, tiuceptible, symbol, synoptit,
•i, limenty, temporalities, lindewy, terrene, (mWuKH(, trepidation,
1, tnuuifjr, valedielion, Tmialitg, veteran, vi^l, virile.
Charged with ha'ing amployed "many lofty words," L'Estrango
replied : " As to thoae lofty words, I declare to all the wnrld this not
uningnnaoDs acknowledgement, that, having conversed with authon of
the noblest and eheif rematque in several languages, not onely their
notiona, hut thoir vary words, eapecially being of the moat elegant
I import, became, at length, so familiar with mo, na, when I epply'd my
" 1 Chat present work, I found it very difficult to reuoance my
PURISM. 115
couth and Unustiall Words which are found " in
Hamon L'Estrange's Reign of King Charles, the first
former acquaintance with them ; but, as they freely offred themselves,
so I entertain' d them, upon these considerations." The Observator 0^-
served{l&6Q),^. 2.
The Preface to the second edition of The Reign of King Charles opens
with this sentence : " What oblique descants will come traverse upon
this honest narrative, I already prejudicate."
At p. 21 of the work, L' Estrange writes, with reference to Lord
Keeper Williams : " For, when once the publique is put into our clien-
tele, under our protection, all by-relations must stand aloof. Nor was
his mischief great, his cancelier ; his fall being onely from the first
loft : for, though he parted from the Great Seal, he kept the lawn-
sleeves ; and, though he left the purse behind him, he went away with
the money, having feathered his nest pretty well : and, apprehending
his condition to be somewhat tottering, he made all the means he could
to reingratiate himself with the Duke ; but nothing could prevail ;
nor would the Duke be exorated, no, not by the intercession of the
Countesse, his mother : but it was not enough to pluck his feathers,
unlesse his nails were pared, also.*'
L' Estrange tried, but in vain, to convict Heylin of having mis-
understood the meaning of the Latin stylus ; and it is no wonder that
the divine, while defending himself, was tempted into parodying the
historian's pedantry and grandiloquence. " Now the thunder- thump-
ing Jove transfund his dotes into the pericranium of our learned
author, who seems, like Rhombus, in Sir Philip, to be
even gravi dated with child, untill he hath endoctrinated our plumbeous
cerebrosities in the adaequate sence and perceptibility of the word,"
&c. Extraneus Vapulans (1656), pp. 37, 38.
Archdeacon Todd injudiciously subscribes to Vernon's judgment,
that Heylin " so wrote as to be comprehended by the most vulgar
reader." My own conclusion, after reading several thousand pages of
his writings, is, that he was scarcely less fond of hard words than the
victim of his criticism. Whether any given expression was allowable,
or unallowable, he would not, however, grant that any one but him-
self was a proper arbiter. As I could easily evince, many of
L'Estrange's terms which he reckons " uncouth and unusuall", had
been in good use for half a century, or more, before they were placed
in the glossary epitomized in this note.
Heylin, though now pretty thoroughly forgotten, was, in his day,
a man of mark. A stauncher or more learned son the Church of
England can hardly name between Hooker and Waterland. For
voluminousness I know of no writer, during the whole of t\\ft ^^'^^^^^
edition of wliicli very affected and tasteless effusion
had then recently been published.
"There is a new word coined, within few months,
called fanafics," writes Thomas Fuller,' in 1660.
Bentley,* in his answer to Boyle, says : " Tbe
words in my book which he excepts against are
t«fiiith Eentury, that BurpnisiM him. Utiwimriiibli', fcarl^EB, spirited,
logioBl, of boundless informstion, and a niBater in Ma viaj nf fiommii-
oicatiDg it, there is muoh in him Chat challenges admlratioii. The
■erriia character nf his loyalty he shared with all other mnnarabists of
his time ; and, in estiniutin^ him, it cm taiOy bu maile too mach of.
/b to his pugTiHCity, also, it was, to bfl sure, somewhat in eicess ; bnt
there wbs nothing ill-naturud about it ; and one rends with pleaanre,
that he and Fuller, for all the hard hittiog they exchaog^d, subsequently
not only made vaoh other's aeqnaiatance, but beuame fast friends, and
M continued untdl they were separated by death.
1 Mixt Gantempbitioai in Bitter Timei, Part I, 60. Fuller did not
object to it, hoWBTar; for, in Part 1, 2B, and ugain in Part 2, 45, be
uses the tana himself. And Henry More, in ilia Mystery of GBdliiiinii
(leeo), p. 617, has the aubstantive/ffiindo.
' Worii, Vol. 1, Preface, p. liv. Bentley'a writinga have been but
witeleRsly scannud by our laiicograpbere, who might bafe added, from
them, the words, orfomis of words, herefoUowinjr : tbev.a. c/iuponnle;
tba T.n. prrvent ; tbe suhstantiTSs caupoualion, obtl, pawaaer, tcaim ;
Had the adjectivea Cnhiiiiati, cAurieal, cismuriiie, eycliaB, phgnogm-
mmical, piyeUmantic.
Benttey may, furthor, be appealed to as warrant for several worda
nhiuh are known, to our diction a ry-malcers, only aa of Iilor dati'.
Here are bohib of them, with their oldest recordod authurilips attached.
AutAenticali : Warton. Cbuponafe. T.n. : Buili'D't IMelhnury. Unrr-
ati: Bailey'i SidioHary. Sectntion, aa now used: Edinburgh Bt-
I do not contend, however, that the overpassed words jiYEn above,
and in similar lists in thia Toljime. ought, all nf them, to be inserted in
a dictionary ; and yet, in consistency with tbe plan on wliich diction-
aries bato hitherto been compiled, not one of tliem should be omitted.
Nor am 1 10 rash as t« imagine that I have, here or anywhere *!dse,
diseiivered absolutely the earliest nse of any word. As to avlhuititale,
for instance, I have proof that it wm used in lfll2, and again in 1617 ;
but I dare my it had often bven in print before.
PURISM. 117
comtumiUious,^ repudiate,'^ concede,^ alien ed vemsd^lar^^
timidj negoce, j^utid, and idiom ^ ; every one of which
1 Comtnentitious is used by Sir Arthur Gorges, Translation of Bacon's
JDe Sapientia Veterum (ed. 1619), p. 142 : by Gaule, UvQ-fiavria
(1652), pp. 45, 236, with the adverb at pp. 236, 252, &c. : Glannll,
Scepsis Scieiitifica (ed. 1665), p. 112.
2 " Yet, when she understood how he was abjected and repudiated in
the French Court, it could not choose but be a great agony and amaze-
ment unto her." Thomas Gainsford, The Sistory of Ferkin War'
beck, &c. (1618), in The Sarleian Miscellany- (ed. Oldys and Park,
1810), Vol. 6, p. 556.
Still older quotations will be seen in Dr. Richardson's Dictionary.
3 " That the imbarque and stay of our ships at Blay, by Lewes his
command, was an infringement of the league, it is conceded'^ &c.
Hamon L'Estrange, The Reign of King Charles (ed. 1656), p. 58.
* Now written alien. For the substantive, see Bentley*s Works, Vol.
1, p. 365 ; for the adjective. Vol. 1, p. 360, and Vol. 3, p. 227.
* Addison, in The Spectator, No. 165, adopts Bentley's vernacular
idiom, but with some appearance of misgiving. Gibbon, in his 3fe'
moirs of my Life and Writings, speaks of " repudiating (as Dr.
Bentley would say) my vernacular idiom." Colman, in The GefitU'
man, No. 3, and Cowper, in the Preface to his Iliad, employ the
phrase vernacular idiom, and without thinking it necessary to excuse
themselves for so doing.
*' There are two expressions of frequent occurrence, equally wrong :
* incorrect orthography * and * vernacular idiom '.** Landor, The Last
Fruit off an Old Tree, p. 103.
But, surely, ' vernacular idiom * is quite unobjectionable, if we take
its idiom in the proper sense of the term.
Vernacular is one of the words, — along with benevolence, cuticle,
flagitious, patriotic, primeval, &c. &c., — by which, as being equally
out of the common with their French originals. Sir Thomas TJrquhart,
in 1653, represented the far-fetched jargon of Rabelais' s Limousin
student.
Invernacular is used by E. Jones, in Cicero* s Brutus, &c. (1776),
p. 198.
^ If Boyle had been more explicit in his objection to this word,
Bentley might have found it difficult to defend himself. Vagueness
he seems to have thought fairly answerable by evasion. Boyle him-
self, in his I>r. Bentley* s Dissertations .... Examined (1698), which
called forth the defence quoted above, bad used idiom, at pp. 42, 43,
67, 68, in the sense which it bore with his contemporaries, and which
CHAPTER IT.
I wore [««'] in print before I used them, and, most of
them, before I was born [1663]." He adds: "But
the Examiner might have remembered, before he
talked thus at large, who it was that distinguished
his style with I'^wc^ and recojHOScc,^ and other words
of that sort, which nobody has yet thought fit to
follow him in."'
It Blill lienra. Bentley— see his WorHii, Vol. 1, p. '655, — had timde it
■la^onymous nitli 'dialect ' ; as equivalsiit to nhicb, or to Man^age',
8 beea employed by Ladj Mary W. MoDtogu, Blackfitotie,
EOibbon, and many others. Instead of idiotit, aa more accurately ep-
■ ptied, Bentley haa iiioihm. VoL 2, p. 70.
"And irhat ii histury without iU idiamf, truth, but a meec ro-
Hamon L'Eatrango, Thi Eeign of King CAarla, Preface.
A nearer approach to modem usage is aeen, where the same author
K^W^iteB, that " ths priest . . according to the idioms of antiquity,
gatwaies imported none inferiour to the biEbop." Tht Alliance of
^M. (1669), p. 322.
"Well applyed. John Ellis, and, pasaibly, intolligihle enough in a
■iplaee of manufactures, but nothing proper to the true meaning of the
Bword in the vulgar iditme." Heylin, Ezlraaeia VapuUtna (18156),
■^ 279.
, See, further. Bishop Sprat, Tht Sislori/ of Iht Roffal Soeicly, &c.
Mpi. 1667), p. 42.
^ fiichard Franclt writsi, affectedly enough, of " the Wi™i or form
a horn." NortJuwn Mimoira (ed. IfiB*), p. 177. This work was
imposed in 1658. Also vide lupm, p. ]09, note 3.
cceptation now obeolete, ' be ignorant of.' I find an in-
n BtirthoggB, Caiaa Dei (1675), p. 25.
Tha legal lense of iffnore, which, since Burke showed it to the pub-
is gradaally become popularined, I do not know to he ss old as
le days of Boyle. Our preeent igiiors is deritod from ignoramus, an
opression formerly employed by jurymen.
Bentley also instances Boyle's eolemporarg. as objcctionahle. His
1 " iroaehi'ig of eipressionB, " whicb Buyle impugna. he dous not
even dHgn to defend.
* When Boyle wrote, recojwfn — eieeptin the sense of 'revise,' — may
(till have been regarded ns somewhat Gallic ; nnd fur this rraton, pro-
■'tably, be wont back, in bit affectation of clasaieism, to the Latin, in
hoofing reeegniiKf.
' Jd the conelmoa of this sentence, Benlley alludes to Boyle's pro-
PURISM. 119
Jeremy Collier, criticizing the expression "wafting
air ", remarks, that wafting " is almost worn out of
use " ; ^ and he blames Congreve for qualifying
'roof and * knowledge' as ample j^
Addison noted-pp^le as being " a French term of
art " ; ^ relief, in its application to a picture, he treats
as if still foreign ; * and he speaks of " what the
painters call a groiippe ".^ Milton's cornice, culmin-
phecy : " Sir William Temple may say sufficiency y and the world will
speak after him." Dr. Bentley* a Dissertations .... JExamined^ p. 287.
Audibly, at all events, the world has not herein chosen to "speak
after" Sir William Temple, who would impose on us the word
sufficiency f in the sense of 'self-sufficiency'. Boyle delivers himself
as if he thought sufficiency, whatever its meaning, a neoterism. If
not, then,^gi*ossly careless, he was grossly ignorant.
I should mention, that Bishop Lowth, for one, has taken up with
Temple's sense of sufficiency. " In the mean time, God administers
and dispenses the several evils of this life by different measures, and
in various ways, as best may answer his wise, his righteous, his good
and merciful designs : to humble us ; to check our pride and suffici-
ency ;'' &c. &c. Sermons and Other Remains (1834), p. 188.
" Lowth was well aware of his own excellence on this point [viz.,
as a writer of English], Alluding, one day, to Mr. John Lind, who
had defended the conduct of Lord North, in an admirable pamphlet
on the American War, he observed : * No man can write better Eng-
lish than Lind, except myself \'* Ibid., p. 25, foot-note.
Yet the Bishop could call Solomon's Proverbs ** the most curious
and valuable re^nain of antient wisdom". Ibid., p. 109. Was this
ever really English > See, besides the Dictionaries, Sir John Haw-
kins, for " our little remaine of victuals '*, in Hakluyt, Vol. 1 (1589),
p. 556 ; and Oliver Cromwell (1651), in Mr. H. Gary's Memorials, &c.
(1842), Vol. 2, p. 380.
And could the Bishop have defended his verb disculpate, his sub-
stantive expectative, and such a spelling as substraction ? See The
Life of William of Wykeham (ed. 1759), pp. 161, 38, 86.
Elsewhere, the Bishop thinks good to write eucumer, ferriery, hist,
and reap'hook, for cucumber, farriery, hiss, and reaping -fwok. Isaiah
(ed. 1778), Notes, pp. 9, 52, 51, 127.
1 A Short View, &c. (ed. 1730), p. 218. 2 Ibid., p. 254.
3 Dialogues upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals, Dialogue 3.
* Ihid. « Note on Tht Story of Phaeton.
CHAPTER IV.
ole, equalor, and zenith are, in his opinion, too tech-
nical for ordinary apprehension.' Further, on his
credit, cartel, commandant, corps, defile, gasconade,
marauding, pontoon, and reconnoitre were scarcely
Engliahiu 1711.*
A year earlier, Swift ' ridiculed akrt * and banter,
and spoke of ambassador, battalion, circumrallation,
pnlisado, and prelim imr}/, as if he snpposed they
were not likely long to eurvive what he took to be
their then recent birth.'
Eicbardson, in Clarissa Har/orce," makes one of his
■ TAt Sptctator, Nu. 297.
* Hid., No. 166. '• Half tlie French words used affeutcdlj' by
Meknths, in Drftlcn's Marriage d-la-Mode, ni innovBtiona in out
language, are now in common use. Kair^eli, foibli, chagrin, grimaa,
imiarras, double mtendn, equieoqut, 4cbiirciaaeiiitat, ridicule, — all thesB
words, which ehe learns hj heart, to use DccBaionall^r, arc nu* in com-
mon UM." Isaac Disraeli, CuriiitUiei ef Litaratuci, Uiilwy of New
IFardi.
» Tht Taller, No. 230.
* Though Addisair seeiDS to regard alertniai at good En^lieh, he
writes aUrU, — sue 7'Ag dptetator, Ku, 403, — as if he cDnsidcred the
word to be French still.
* That Bwift CDuld tslie eien the ^Eoler part of tbese terms In he
ahsolntelf noiel is incoDsUtent with his liBvicigbeon much oFa reader,
or, at UuBt, with his huving had a. good memory.
"Your jnung gallants of the time . , nt hcst laik of nothing hnt
rampordt and parnpaii, maiguetadi, eitnami^ont, and eanvnada."
Eichnrd Fleckno, A Selaeion o/ Ten Tairi Travella, &C. (1666), pp.
11, 13,
Thb list, aalt'dating Swift's by more than half s centarj, is curious,
if intended lo register words wbioh, when Fleokuo wrote, were emerg-
ing, or threatening to enierge, into popularity.
£aNi^'r>, in 1655, would not haie altmclcd notice: though now
poetical, it is older Ibsn ramperl. Farapei is in many a book anterior
lo Fledrao's time. CanamaiU, the Bubilnniive, is not noticed hj Dr.
Johnson, or by his editor, Archdeacon Toild,
■ Vol. 6, p. 2-ii (ed. 18U). But, even in the time of Kichardson,
tie word traa ua the point ot achicTing aometbing o( rctpeclability.
PURISM. 121
characters say : " When I have least to narrate^ — to
speak in the Scottish phrase,- — I am most diverting."
Dr. Johnson ^ charges Dr. Blackwell with using,
in attainder, quilanlc, and parapet, " words that every
other polite writer has avoided and despised." ^ ^^djCZ-
rangements and reconnoitred^ he treats as if they
I note some instaoces of its occurrence prior to its being acknowledged
as good English. R. 0. Cambridge, The World (1754), No. 66.
Garrick (1769), Private Correspondence^ &c.. Vol. 2, p. 344. Miss
Burney (1782), Cecilia, Book 9, Ch. 2, and Book 10, Ch. 10." William
Taylor, The Monthly Review, Vol. 16 (1795), p. 514: The Monthly
Magazine, Vol. 4 (1797), p. 335 : The Annual Review, Vol. 1 (1803),
p. 256. William Godwin, The Enquirer (1797), p. 470. Coleridge
(1800), Essays on His Own Titnes, p. 377. Charles Lamb (1802),
Letters (ed. 1837), Vol. 1, p. 215. Southey, The Annual Review,
Vol. 2 (1804), p. 17.
In The Quarterly Review, Vol. 4 (1813), p. 433, we read of "the
abominable verb narrate, which must absolutely be proscribed in all
good writing." Eight years later, this "abominable verb" was used
in the same work, by Southey. See Vol. 24 (1821), p. 463 ; also \
Vol. 57 (1836), p. 2. And Southey had used it long before, as I have
shown just above.
It occurs in The Scotch Fresbyterian Eloquence, and not as a quota-
tion, p. 67 (ed. 1693). At least twenty-five years earlier. Bishop
Lloyd recognized it as English. See, under signijie, his Dictionary
appended to An Essay towards a Real Character, &c., by Bishop
Wilkins (1668).
1 In his review of Memoirs of the Court of Augustus.
2 Had Dr. Johnson read all other polite writers } And, even if he
had, could he rationally believe that he remembered they had, to a
man, avoided any particular word or words } As he himself and other
lexicographers have shown, the three expressions which he here de-
spises had received highly respectable sanction long before his day.
' Aaron Hill wrote, in 1743 : "A writer polished into the modem
embellishments would have taken this opportunity to shew his erudi-
tion in French, by the word reconnoitre. Horrible affectation of jar-
gon! Such abominable insertions as this phrase, and tapis, and
eclaircissenient, and all the frighttul et csetera most in fashion, into a
language they rather stick to than unite with, seem to me as ridicul-
ous an endeavour as an Act for Naturalization of Blackamoors."
JForks, Vol. 2, p. 224.
' i'£i CBAPTEK IV.
were not yet domeBticated.^ Jeoparff, mite, and
icomonhood he declares to be " obsolete " ; jeopardy,
to be " not now injuse " ; succumb, to be " not in nee,
except among the Scotch " ; and proceeds, the aub-
atantive, to bo "not an imitable word." Smoulder-
ing, he says, " seems a participle ; but I know not
whether the verb smo((/rf^' ' be in use."' In 1771,
his opinion was, that "feeling, for ' tendernesa ', or
' sensibility ', is a word merely colloquial, of late in-
troduction." ' He also writes : " Wagers are laid,
in the city, about our success, which is yet, as the
French call it, pivbiematical." '
Miss Carter, having occasion, in 1754, to use the^
word kiitsicoman, remarlcB on it, as being "old-fa-
shioned." °
Writing in 1761, Dr. Priestley says:' "Wo do
not call a female author an authoress ; and, if a lady
Seeannoiire was used, by Gnvea, as \Me as 1773. in the original
sensa of reconiiaUre, ' recognize." " He wonld httrily have reconnoitred
Wildgooae, howsTi^r, in Uii short huir and present dqcouUi appeiiT-
anca." Tht Spiritual Quixote (ed. 1820), Vol. 1, p. ISO.
Five yeari before, Horaaa Wulpole wrote ; " So ineompetent has the
generality of bistoriona been for the province they hure undertaken,
thai it is almost a question whether, if the dead of put ages could
raiive, tbey would be able to reamnoilre the events of their own times,
ua transmitted to us by ignorance and miarepresentation." Mitlorie
Soubtt, &c., Profnce, p. t.
1 Be« The liler. No. B.
' Dr. Hichankon flnda it in Sir Thomas Moro^ Holinsbcd, and
Biehop Jewell. For tmoiildtr, as a verb active, aee Bir Thomns Elyot,
The Image ef Oovernance (1544), foL 25 v.
* Bee Dr. Johnson'a DictioHarij, first edition.
* The iViVaW Comtpimdenpf of David Qarrick, (tc. Vol, 1. p, 146.
' Letter to Mrs. Tbrale, Nov, 1, 1777. Boyle and Swift niual,
then, bare Galliciied. Bca the Doctor's Lietionanj.
« Letto-i la Wits Talh-it, &c. {ed. 1809), Vol. 2, p. loS.
' Tif jSudimeHla of Engiieh Grammat, &o., p. 53.
PURISM. 123
write poems, she is, now-a-days, called a poet, rather
than a poetess, which is almost obsolete."
Wording, in 1762, was considered, by John Wilkes,
to be a vulgarism.^
Strange as it may seem, Gray,^ in 1771, regarded
eschew, forth, gaud, meed, sheen, in sooth, and wight,
m
as " obsolete.^' The adjective infuriate he thought
was coined by Dr. Beattie.^
1 See The North Briton, No. 17.
' Works, Vol. 4, p. 309. Gray refers especially to the diction of
poetry. He adds aye, f and, and ween,
3 Works, Vol. 4, p. 311. Almost incredibly, Gray believed Dryden
to have minted the verbs disherit, furbish, smoulder, villanize ; the
substantives anay, beldam, beverage, a'one, disarray, knar, mood,
roundelay, trim ; and the adjectives doddered, retchless, wayward.
Works, Vol. 2, p. 153. This was in 1742. But Gray, to the very last,
held views, as to the vocabulary of our language, such as no heedful or
wide-read student of English literature could possibly entertain.
Even the Bible would have shown bim array and furbish ; Chaucer,
crone ; Spenser, disarray, disherit, mood, and roundelay ; and Shake-
speare, beldam, beverage, trim, and wayward. As to villanize, we read,
in A World of Wonders (1607), p. 203 : " Because the curtizan had
angered bim, he would revenge himselfe upon God, and so despite and
villanize him as neither Turke nor Jew could have done worse."
Gray's finicalness about expressions was excessive. For instance, he
writes : '* I rejoice to find you apply (pardon the use of so odious a
word) to the history of your own times." Works, Vol. 3, p. 84.
I am not aware that this use of apply ever was ".odious". In-
stances of it prior to Gray*s criticism are seen in De Foe, Moll Flanders
(ed. 1840), p. 347 ; and in Richardson, Sir Charles Grandison (ed.
1811), Vol. 2, p. 378.
** I have been too ill and too dispirited to apply to anything for
some weeks past." Miss Carter {17 Q9), Letters to Mrs. Montagu, Vol.
2, p. 60,
" Those who apply to the study of the common law often boast,"
&c. Bp. Hallifax (1779), An Analysis of the Roman Civil Law (ed.
1795), Preface, p. xvi.
" He mingled in cursory conversation with the same steadiness of
attention as others apply to a lecture." Dr. Johnson, Life of Savage.
Also see Graves, The Spiritual Quixote (ed. 1820), Vol. 1, p. 114;
Southey, Letters, &c. (1797), p. 9; Cbtoper's Trork8,NQV\,^.1\.
I'ii CUAFTEB IV.
Dr. Jolin Iloadly wrote, in 1773 :"!.,. received
tboni handsomely at half pasl seven, qb the modern
English now is." '
Sir Harry Hamper, in a play of Foote"s which
came out iu 1776, aska, at Calais ; " But is not there
fiomc danger ? Won't their magiatnttes, their polict/,
m they call it here, take it amiss ? " ' The word
poUcp, at least in its present sense, could not have
heen common then in English.*
" I don't know whether I can assent to your critic-
ism on the word replete, that it is never used in a good
SL'use. Were it left to me, I would use it in no
sense. It Las but little meaning. It was never
naturalized in conversation, or in prose, and, I
think, makes no figui'e in verse." So wrote BisTiop
. Shipley to Sir William Jones.*
" If I may compose such a word," adds Sir William,
himself, to the word heart-rending?
" The world itself is in a state of superannuation, if
there be such a word," wrote William Cowper, in
1781.' The same year, he calls wixell "the Irish
In Dr. JolinHin'i Diclionortf. eTen in the (tdition of Dr. Lstbam,
the sense of appln here eiemplified is orerpassed.
' l%t Private CormipoiuleHte of Satid Ganiet, Sc!:.,Tu\, 1, p. 571,
^ The Capuchin, Act 3.
> Horace 'Walpole uses it In hia Bittarie Souiii, Ac. (17SS}, Pra-
' M^moirt .... 0/ Sir William Jonet <fii. 180(1), p. 20t Tlio
letter quoted is dated in ITflL.
" Tlui Bnthor of Ibe English Commentary hns & note on thi» passage,
rrrpleti with doe titste and sound criticism." Colmnii, Pmtt oh Several
OimMioM. &o., Vol. 3, p. 114.
' Mmielri .... 0/ Sir WilUani Jwiw. p. 20S. Waller had nscd
Jrarf-ruii/i'ijr ;bnt the lenn most lisve been unusuiU.nhta Sir William
JoDes wrote wt abavo. in 1T82.
' ffirir (ed. Sootbej, 1835—1837), Vol. 15, p. 66.
PURfSM. 125
term " ; ^ and, in 1785, taken in, for ' duped,' was, with
him,^ a "jockey-phrase." To beetling he annexes
this note : " The word has the authority of Shake-
speare, and signifies * overhanging \" ^ As to rife, he
feels there is occasion to explain that it " is a Saxon
word, and signifies * frequent ' or * common '.'' *
A use of the word ticket, which has not yet risen
above the level of slang, appears to have come up
about 1782.*
Uvedale Price, in 1794, having used the term
^ TForkSy Vol. 4, p. 161. No doubt, unwell, while still a novelty,
affected the sensibilities of those who heard it, much as ungood affects
our sensibilities.
Unwell has, almost of course, been classed as a "Yankeeism".
Lord Chesterfield used it. And it was familiar to Miss Carter in 1761
and 1764. See her Letters to Mrs, Montagu (ed. 1817), Vol. 1, pp.
.103, 213. But it was not unknown a whole century before their time.
"A little unweir' occurs in Sir Thomas Urquhart's Translation of
Rabelais, — Book 1, Chapter 6, — published in 1653.
Since I wrote thus much of this note, a remark made by my little
boy of ten has induced me to extend it. On my casually speaking to
bim of some one as being unwell, he repeated the word, called it
*' strange ", and added that he supposed I meant ," not well.'* To
say truth, in the vernacular language of England, unwell is not com-
monly employed, except between men, in the general sense of * indis-
posed '. Women avoid it, unless talking among themselves ; and then
they use it, for the most part, euphemistically.
2 Works, Vol. 6, p. 134. Edward Moore, in The World, No. 96
(1754), calls take in a "fashionable phrase*'. Richardson uses it in
Sir Charles Grandison (ed. 1811), Vol. 6, p. 398. Dr. Johnson calls
it " a low vulgar phrase ".
3 Odyssey, Book 10.
* Note on Faradise Lost, Book 1, 1. 650. Rife occurs in Gay's
Folly, Act 3.
* The year Miss Bumey published her Cecilia, where we read, in
Book 1, Ch. 3 :
*' * A ticket ? ' repeated Cecilia. * Does Lady Nyland only admit
her company with tickets ? '
" * Lord ! ' cried Miss Larolles, laughing immoderately. * Don't
^■i^^^^B CHArrtiK IV.
piduresquene»s, attaclied to it this foot-note : " I hiive
ventured to make use of this word, — which, I believe,
dot-8 not occur in any writer, — from what appeared to
me the necessity of having some one word to oppose
to beauty and sublimity, in a work where they are
BO often compared." ' It would strike us as strange,
if any one should now think an apology needed for
tacking -ne&a to an eatabhshed adjective, the result
involving neither undue length nor harshness. Price
risks unpicturcsque ; but its substantive was beyond
his daring,
Mrs. Godwin stigmatizes " a villain in gram " as
"a significant vulgarism."^
On the word of William Taylor, livelong, in 1797,
was "growing obsolete."^ Tho next year, Taylor
wrote, in what must, at that time, have been account-
ed moafc ouHandiah phraseology :
"Were we endeavourmg to characterine this work, in
the dialect peculiar to Professor Kant, we should observe,
that its intem'ioe, like ite extensive, magnitude is email ; as
a detached disquisition, or as a contribution to the theory
of taste, it is alike unimportant ; its suhjectivi.' is aa slight
as its objective, worth. Of the author we cannot but bus-
pect, that his empiricnl acquaintance with works of taHt«
is not comprehensive ; his recepfiviti/ for (eslhetie * gratifi-
you know whnt I mean ? Why, a iiflm b only u visiting-curd with a
name upon it ; but we nil call them iiehcti now '."
' An Eiaii!/ en lit Pictwtiguf, &c., p. 38.
= PoithHmoaii Worhs {1798), Vol. 4, p. 49.
' The MoHl/ili/ Seview, Vol. 23, p. 175.
* A» knowing thia term, and as nercr slirinVing from nnythinu un-
HBuol in diction, it is nnacoountablB that Taylor should write : " lady
Knuell's letters hare rather n moral snil paliticul, than a beautiful
Tttlue." The Monthly lUcieui, VoL 75 (1814), p. 166.
JUuch in the same way, Addison, in his Ti-avels, &b., Breacia, Virona,
PURISM. 127
cation, not delicate ; his transcendental deduction of the
categories of criticism, neither discretive nor exhaustive ;
and that the phenomena of beauty, with respect to him,
rank among the noumena."^
The reader will not require to be told how many
of the terms here got together for their oddness
would now elicit no remark even from a purist.
In 1799,^ a critic expressed the wish that a cer-
tain author " had not disfigured his pages with the
French words '^fracas, routBy and trait,^
Padua, tells of ^'•apoplectic balsam". Cowper has ^* ludicrous
talent "y-in the sense of * talent for the ludicrous'. JForkSfYol. 7,
p. 327. And I have more than once read of " a miscellaneous author."
Yet some of our accepted idioms must once have seemed quite as
odd. We have sick rooms and dying beds. We qualify an asylum as
insane^ and we have not only houses that are mad, but doctors and
nurses, with others who, for all their hearing and talking like other
folks, are d^af and dumb.
^ The Monthly Review, Vol. 25, p. 585.
2 Ibid., Vol. 28, p. 56. Mr. John Pytches would have omitted these
words from the dictionary which he began, but unfortunately left a
fragment. He adds apropos, bizarre, canaille, cap-a-pie, hauteur.
See The Monthly Magazine, Vol. 21 (1806), p. 386.
3 To most Americans it will, I suppose, be news, that these words,
and so the substantive invalid, still have, with Englishmen, their
French pronunciation.
Gray names together, as French words, advertisement, eclaircisse-
ment, eclat, ennui, fracas, hautgout, raillery, and ridicule. Works,
Vol. 5, p. 299.
Some of these words, as advertisement, raillery, and ridicule, were
pretty well established long before Gray's time ; and some of them are,
to this hour, essentially French.
Hautgout was, once, anything but uncommon in literature and in
speech, and was often written hogo and hogoe.
It was hogo, I surmise, that suggested the vulgar fogo. At first,
probably, fogo was added to hogo, for the sake of jingle ; and then, as
the word,, from resemblance io faugh, foh, intrinsically conveyed the
idea of disgust, hogo fogo was shortened \xifogo. Again, in holy fogo,
the holy may be a corruption of hogo.
The Eev. Jonathan Boucher ' hastily specified, as
new, in 1800, the words berth.,* cockroach,^ grog, gully,
legijingi, molnssps,* and smash.
In the Edinburgh Renew for 1809,° crans' is called
"radically and entirely new, and as utterly foreign,
as if it' had heen adopted from the Hebrew or
Chinese " ; and exception is taken to millennial and
utilize,"
' See A Glotmry, &o„ IntroducHon, pp. xlix. and I. The Introduc-
lion was nut publiEli(<d tQI Inng ufter tho author's death.
" It iras used by Da Foe, in 1720. See Cafilam Sinr/Zetan (ed.
1840), p. 178, Three instancea of it are Heen in TAs Jealaun Wi/e. hy
Colmiin (1761). Also sea Misa Burney, Etelma (al. 1779). Vol. i, Ch.
16 : Thomas Dibdin, T!w Airthday, Act 1, Scene 2 : fiobcrfjcphann,
TiBB SMni/B ta yanr Soui, Act I, Scene 3.
' Its etymology our reiiooffraphflrs do not even attempt to trace.
Without question, it \a from tlie PortuKuese carn'u>hti, 'chafer',
' beetle ', and was inti^uced into our languuge by Bailors.
' This VBa a term of rather rare occurrence, it neeme, prior to ahont
the middle of the Init cenlnry. The old form of the word is eiHbitod
in the "Widow Jfuloma" of Murphy's JTphohterer. 1768.
Thfi very marliBd diatineSon bfitween molassei: and treacle ia eom-
mooty ignored in Americs, where the latter is seldom heard of under
that namo. " Vol. IS, pp. 2S, 29.
' Among their authoritiea farm'nif, the Dictionaries quote Edward
Halle, Bishop Taylor, Cudworth, and SirThomss Browne ; and I find,
in Hanry More, frff«», rrruttji, emiailmlt, and croirmsiw. To the Scotch
flritio, with hia provBrbial " smnll Lrtlin '', rery likily even the eraina
ipmrantia and erana iBgiiitBi at the lawyers were " Ks utterly foreign
as ... ■ Hebrew or Cbineae."
' The original has " are " ; irumal beinc coupled with n'n*i. But
brtmnl is used by Sir T. Herbert and Sir Tbnmns Browne, as Dr.'
Johnson and Arclideacon Todd acquaint us. Also seo Tki HatHrall
mid Ezp-iimenlalt Sinlary of Winds, &c. (1668), p. 3 ; and Thomas
Taylor, i^iiMdni'iM (1704), Vol. 2, pp. 320, 321. As might have been
expected, the critic knew nathini; of Unrtial's hrinnnlia ; and hs can-
not hare heard of the French hrumal.
' Burnet bos been cited for this word ; and I might adduce, for it,
the author of Tlu Lift of Joteph Midr, Henry More t^panim), and
Jeremy Collier. Dr. Kichardsou does not know any such adjectiTe,
" UtUiif. a word both useful and readily intelligible, mus very slow
in bacomiag nntunilized.
" It is beyond all doubt, tbiit ■ he was sometimes
t thus imposed upon, or, to nee a word which seems
I now to be naturalized, thus myxtijifd." So wrote
[ Southey,' ia 1816; and, in 1826: "The studentB
I were friends and ehums, a word so nearly obaolete,
I that it may be proper, perhaps, to explain it, as moan-
I ing ' chambor-i'ellowa.' " '
h Under the date of 1818, Archdeacon Todd " says
I that grade " has been brought forward in some
I modem pamphlets"; and he rashly risks the pro-
L phecy, that " it wilt hardly be adopted."
I Lord Macaulay* finicaDy objects to mltirii/ion,
I as " not pure EngHsh." Probably be would have
I found no fault with mttirifi/, which, however, to
1 most people, is no English at all, pure or impure. "^
I Uciliar a fonnd in Duprfi'a LeiicograpMii Nialogiia Oaltiea, jlub-
I lithedln IHOI. M. LaresDl calle it, tnlS22, "motTioaTeaii(]ui oam-
I nieniie & prendre fareur." Sictionnaire Baiimni da DiffiniMi ....
I A (a Langiu Fi-an^aise, Vol. 2, p. 602. "Son admisaton dana la
I Dictionniiire date &e 183S." M. Francis Wej, Remarqai), &o,, Vnl.
I 1, p. SI.
I Ab lately aa laSS, M.ViannBt railed at his cnunlrymcnfor uainp t!iB
f TErbg uliltMr, acUvfr, and firmiiler. M. G6iiin has well replied;
" J'BTnne que je ne rou^nj biun oil est la crime, Cea mots sont clnita,
marques praamti nela, puiaqae nnite avona ulilf, aetif et fnrmiih ; ila
n'Dltt point d'^quivident en fmnijaia: panrqaoi done les repouseer^''
Mer/alioitii Fhihlogigiun (ed. 1868), VoL 1, p. 28,
> Stiagi Moral and Politieal, Vol. 1. pp. 261, 262.
' Fiiidieiit Eceletia Atigllentiw, p. 502.
• In his flret edidan of Johnson'B Dietionari),
• Mi'trllaHiBiu Writitvjs (London ed., I860), Vol. 1. p. 331.
> We ihnuld be wreUbedl; atraitened, if one might not introdui-n
^'RHuh a wnid as taturntioH. Saiuratioa oaed by St, August ine : and
it diffured, to him, from iitlurilat, jost MjUliagna* would differ from
I JHUdtuu. Annlogoua M Ihwe wonh are mataraiio and maturitiu. both
j whioh belonfr to thfi golden s|>:c of Lntin.
Salurity, for ' satnratingneia '. wonld he ambiguous. ConTct»elij,«i
I KOidi pnpatalim be, for 'prepnrcdnesa', T^ia \»,tt«T, »a ■^^ofii'aSvi^
CHAPTER 1
The substantive con>!nrvniioe he called,' in 1832,
" the new eant word." " Puffed with wonderful skill "
he introduces with the half-apology, " to use the
modern phf aae " ; ' and that, though he had put the
verb, and without prochronisni, into the mouth of
Osborne, ' the bookseller knocked down by Dr.
Johnson.
Mr. De Quincey, in 18^2, writea of " the two sup-
porters, or andirons, — a,3 they were formerly called." '
It must seem strange to an American, to find andirons
spoken of as a word grown antiquated
Fabaloux, for ' incredible ', — a. senao of the word
which, by the by. Lord Macaulay has oounte^
Danced,^ — ia, with Mr. De Quincey, a "modern slang
phrase";" and so is the subatiintive ;)(?rco'^' Does
eqnivocolnesB. Lord Maoaalaj \aa nut earupled to emploj. And, in bc
dning, he did weli. But wliy wm ha tu tiavu the muriujiolj of eecbew'
ing^ riddles ?
' Miiceltaneota Writiiigi, Vol. 2, p. 78.
' Id., VoL 2, p. 281.
» Id., Vol. 2, p, 270. Mr. J. C. Hotton shows, in Thi Slang
DiotiuHttTy, that it must hare been comin<
* Kio,la-/,»im, p. 247.
' " He foand that the waate uf the scr
oui." MiscellantoKs WHtisgt, Vol. 2, p.
' Werhs, Vol. \, p. 23i. tout-note.
' Id., Vol, 11, p. 95, foot-uota.
In Vol. 1, p. 73, Mr. DBQuinoeyuBBa>r(ur(,- but, in VoL fi, p. 139,
he Beems to heaiCate about iU prnpriety. Culeridge, I tliink,
where eiCQees hiinselr for acceptiag this irregolsr Bueceasor
furefBtbera' fimre. lie writes /iww, in his CAureh mii Statt {ed.
is:)!)), p. 404. He could, however, write JUtura in 1812. See
Omnimn, Vol. 2, p. 17; or Literary Ibimiiii (1836), Vol. 1, p
329.
Mr. De Quincey ohio vrritoB: "Cant words ought, Dertainly, to bi
ptoiCribed, an degrading to the mnjeaty o{ religion. Tho word prat/-
rr/ul, for instance, bo commonly used of lute yuars, seems objcclionable.'
//Sr-A Vol U, p. 20fi.
PURISM. 131
his own " played H — and Tommy '^ ^ belong to a
loftier atmosphere ?
" When, some twenty years ago," writes Arch-
bishop Trench,^ "an * Educational Magazine ' was
That is here assumed which ought first to have heen proved. Many
a pious person, if denied prayerful and prayerfully^ would feel, and
would rightly feel, himself or herself to be grievously robbed and
wronged. Richard Baxter has prayerful; and it is no blemish to the
elegant pages of ray revered teacher. Professor Longfellow.
^ ** Many a wild fellow in Rome would not have played
* H — and Tommy ' in the way they did." Works, Vol. 3, p. 250.
" And, about a hundred years earlier, Lord Bacon played * H — and
Tommy ', " &c. Id.^ Vol. 9, p. 135, foot-note.
2 Englishj Past and Present (ed. 1859), pp. 77, 78. In The Lite-
rary Churchman for 1856, p. 9^, educational is sneered at as *' unscho-
lastic". Two pages after, it is used in an original review-article !
William Taylor used this adjective in 1810 ; and he had been an-
ticipated by Burke. It was in print, however, long before Burke's
time.
" WTiat, then, would the Holy Ghost here teach us, but that the
educationall and professionall are to be imputed and accounted for
nationall, sinnes? " John Gaule, HvQ-pLavTia (1652), p. 30.
Many a word is circumstanced like educational^ regarding which it
would be vain to inquire whether Burke, or whoever first brought it
forward in the last century, was aware that it had been used before.
It is not unsupposable that a word may be proposed independently
by a dozen diiferent writers, and, after all, from not being a desidera-
tum, may fail of being popularly accepted. To pass to ascertained
facts, there actually are words which were ventured many generations
ago, but, for some reason or other, were not taken up, became alto-
gether or generally forgotten, and yet are now familiar to everybody.
In such cases, we have not resuscitations, but virtually new inven-
tions. Among the words specified below, two or three fall strictly
under this description.
Abandonment. Nash, Christ* s Tears over Jerusalem (1594), p. 165
{^\n Archaica, Vol. 1); Lenten Stuffe (1599), in The Harleian Miscel-
lany (ed. Oldys and Park), Vol. 6, p. 146. Dr. Johnson gi\eBabandon-
mentf but without an illustrative extract. Our ancestors long express-
ed its sense by dereliction. The verb abandon was, in 1631, classed,
by Henry Cockeram, among words " now out of use, and only used of
some ancient writers."
stiirted, the first impression on one's mind was, that
a. work having to do with education should not thus
Aieestoria! is not a word peaaliai to tliis centarr, as, on the ehowinFr
oE the leiico^Bphers. it seems tu be. It wns used in 1659. See Thi-
EarleisH MUcillimy (ad. OHja and Part), Vol. 6, p. 88. Also bm Dr.
Johnson, Tht Sambla-i'^o. 192, Sfdn^y Smith has BncM'on'a//^, the
sdTflrb. Workii (one-vol. ed,, 18an), p. 417.
Appetize is treated, in the Dictionari^B, as if Sir Walter Scott may
hflTe introduced it into litemlnre. It is found in Urquhart's Transln-
tion of Baielnii (ed. 1804), Book 2. p. 196.
A»h, the singulRr of laha, ia not recognined by Dr. WebBtor'B
- editors, except at part of a compound. AruhdeacoQ Todd wrote, in
1818 i "We say, in colloqnial languagv, 'burnt to an ajJi '." And
this had long heen home-Engliah, as it in still. Even Dr. Donne
speaks of the nsA of tobacco. Fohjdm-nn (1631), p. 142.
Alraiiliout, which has snpplnntod nlrnliilitrioNa, wa* first registered
hy Dr. Worecster. I lind it in Hiillam, Snulber, Mr. Carlyle, 4c.
Bat it WM used in IGfii, hy R. Whits, in hia Tr^osktion of A Lair
Diieeurie, &c., p. 94.
AtthtntitBti. Thomns James, A Trealiu of l/ir CetrapHon nf
Bm'plure, &e. (16!2). Part 3, p. 10 : Francis Cottingfain (161T), OvI.
Cttmdiai it Illiul. Vir. ad G. C. Epitt.. p. 1B2 : Benlley (1718).
irop*»,Vnl. 3, p, 618. As a Latiniatia participial adJBclive, the word
occurs in Henry Rarl of Mnnmnuth, Adtertitrmeati fmm Pamamaia
(1666), p. 62. The TBrb aathetiHciitB -koh unknown to Dr. Johnson.
It is used by several of his contemporaricB, as Burke, Horace Wal-
pole, &c.
Commetifafion. Edmund Bolton, ITypercriliea (1616), in Anrimit
Ceitieal Eitay; to.. Vol. 2, p. 233. GhuIf, nOe-jinvrfa {1652), pp.
127. 358, Thi Nuluralt and Experimmlall Hiitary of Windt, &c.
(1053), pp. 76, III. In our own time, it has been nied by Dr.
Whewell, Hr. Isaac Taylor, the Rot. Charles Kingslcy, &e. Sa.
Dmattciati. This verb, which Burke uses, is found in Nash, Cki-iit'n
Ttilri, te„ p. 47.
Decilry li not the modernism which Dr. Latham represents it bb
heinfr- See, for the word, Stnbbes, The Anatmnie efAbtiKt (1686), pp.
14fi. 170, 516 (ed. 183(1). Dr. Richardson quotes, (or it. Sir Thomas
More and Prynne.
EiperieaUal is credited, by the leiicographsrs, to none but very
modem writen, as Dr. WhewcU. But Co]pHiI<;ii had aiilicipntfld him.
Xr/irrimtiallg'a, used by Henry More, PhilosophiaiU Poeim (ad. 1647),
Preface to jiyeAosoia.
bcai' upon its front an offensive, or, to say the best, i
very dubious, novelty in the English language."
Siathetiri) vu negteuted, nntU Dr. Worcceter discovered it in
The Jferti Britiah SevieK. It is used by Stubbeg {\bSS), utrnpi-a,
p. 162.
EHiaiUitti. In Chrufi Teaii, &c., p. 78. Nssh has this verb BPtive,
— for which Dr. RIohardson giyes n still earlier aatlioiitj; — and so has
Camden, ia hia Btmaiiu (ed. 1G74). p. 328. Horaae Walpole ased it in
1760. Jlimilittliiig has the sanation of Blackstone. Archdeacon
Todd defines hitmile by " hnmiliale ", irhiah, howevBr, he forgets lo
record in iU plac«. Dr. Lathun kuowa no verb hamiliati ; and Dr.
Sidhardson exempIiSes the word ns an siljenlive oiilj.
Infamize la found in 7V« Lifg . . . of Falker Bail {ed. 1678), p.
li. Dr. Wurcesttir Srat mentions it, nnd as used b; Culerldi^c. In-
/amizer is one of Najb's words which Gftbriell Harvej held up for
ridicule, in I6Q3. See Fieres't Supcrti-ogation, p. 179.
A'ona is oraiiited, hj Dr. Worcester, to Coleridge. See, for it,
JmriBs Hajward, T/n BaniaA'd Virgin (163S), p. 169: Bmthwait,
Tht lit'et ef all The JtumaH Emperori (1636), p. 37o.
jVomfef, in the sense of ■ small new book ', is met with in Gabrieil
Bunej, Fimr Letter; &o. (1692), p. 37 (in Arehmea, Vol. 2). Nnvtl,
of which it is a diminutive, is used, by Harvey, in A New Letter, kc.
(1693), pp. 4, 10 (in Arehaica, Vol. 2).
Palrial. Gaule, n"C-/*atrin, p. 301. William Taylor, The
MoHthlg Rsvieif, Vol. 23 (1797), p. i84; The Manthly Magazine,
Vol. 9 (1800), p. B i T/u Annual BcniinB, Vol. 4 (1806), p. 237.
Pi'emit, for ' premise ", appears in Dr. Doone's i'scuda-marljir
(1610), Prefuoe, aig, E 1 v, Thv only authority for it which the Dic-
tianaries mention is Kutchmnn.
QmliCative. Giiute, Iluf-finvriii, p. 49.
Jbiw, for 'disturbance', wus Kpuken of, by Archdeacon Todd, in
1818, as "a very low eipreesion " ; nnd he quotes Douce as snying
that it "was very much used a few years since." Spraoger Barry
used it in 1746. See The ^rirate CorrupaHdence of Lovid Oarrici,
&e.. Vol. I, p. 41.
Stance, the verb, meaning 'floe', "appears to be modern", Dr,
Biehardson says. Dr. Johnson knew cif ni> nuthoiity for it; and Arcb-
d*aoon Todd quotes 77iB 7d/«r. Milton used it in 1G41. Sec bis /!■«<
fforla (ed. Bohn), Vol. 2, pi 416,
nisehaUhip was first disinterred by Dr. Worcester, and from the
pages of Sir Walter Scott. I find it iu The French Aeadeinie, part I
jcd. 1680), p. £01.
CHAPTER IV.
Well, and wLat is the matter with eiliicfitioiml ?
Utility, perspicuity, and concisenesa are, we all know,
to peraons of a certain sort, — those who would keep
the world in leading-strings, — nothing, if to bo pur-
chased at the cost of lEuiovation. The people who
would ohject to etlucafional are, however, of the same
type, and, almost invariably, of the same class, with
those who, if they were but honest enough and man-
ly enough to speak out their convictions, would
ohject to everything that is connected with the word,
in our associations. For, inconsistent as the majority
of men are, we every day observe, more and more,
that, as those who seriously favour progress at all
favour it in all things, so those who openly resist it
in one direction would, in propitious circumstances,
resist it in all directions.
niuatrationa like the preceding might ho largely
multiplied ; and, indeed, there are, in my third
chapter, many quotations which, though there
brought forward for a special purpose, would none
the less be in place here.
TsHt and lonlri' are foimd in nn Diclionaries but thnae nf verjreMnl
date. Yet thi'Be words ware in nse before 17S4, S. Biebardaou, Cam-
ipondtnct, &c., Vol. 3, p. 31S.
Teib'il WEie flrat Teoorded by Dr. RicTinrdson, and as uwd by Bp.
■Warhurton. It otcura in Litht'ow, Tht T«ia!l VIkiihis,', &c. (1U32],
CHAPTER V.
NEOTERISM.
Novis in rebus licet nova nobis verba confingere.
SouTHEY, in a letter to William Taylor/ protests,
with much emphasis, against his addiction to words
" which are so foreign as not to be even in Johnson's
farrago of a dictionary." " Do sometimes ask your-
self the question," he again urges,^ ''whether the
word you are about to use be in the dictionary, or
not." This was in 1803 and 1804; and, already
then, Southey would have found himself cruelly tor-
tured, if adjusted to the Procrustean bed which he
recommended to his friend. Sixty or seventy years
ago, our dictionaries were, to be sure, a trifle worse
than they are now ; but one may well marvel, that a
man of letters, whether in 1804 or in 1873, should
remit a fellow-craftsman to an English dictionary,
as determining what is permissible in phraseology,
and what is otherwise. Most people, however, after
they have learned to spell, keep books of this class
mainly for show, the end they best fulfil. Lexi-
cographers apart, it is only a curious inquirer, here
and there, that appreciates intelligently their de-
plorable vanity and delusiveness.'
^ Mr. Robberd's Memoir of William Taylor, Vol. 1, p. 452.
2 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 488.
^ Johnson's Dietionarf/, in particular, though a great advance on
its predecessors, has been ludicrously overrated. Q^vvit^ ^q^^\^\'^^\^
Boldness of pretension is, notoriously, the surest
and tile safest of means for gaining acceptance with
the multitude. And no less undeniable is it, that, of
all claimants to consideration and authority, tho maker
of a book, provided it is not a poem or a novel, is the
most generally taken at hie implied self-assessment ;
us if his intrinsic credit were best ascertained by his
own valuation of it. The few write and lead, and
the many read and follow ; and the many, exagger-
ating the difference of cure and conscientiousness
which obtains between what is merely spoken and
what is formally set before the world, assume that
statements deliberately made in print, and, as it
were, under hand and seal, must needs have secure
foundation- A statement so made becomes, when
once lodged in the memory, an article of stable
mental furniture ; and it ia not easily dislodged by
a counter-statement, however solidly substantiated,
Indeed, oi'tentiraes it is not even perceived that the
original assertion is contradicted, unless the con-
tradiction is professedly and pointedly propounded
as such ; and this, if not pressed with vehement earn-
estness, is unlikely to gain even a fugitive attention.
Moreover, there is, in the majority of men, a pride
which resents the very idea that their first impres-
sions may stand in need of revisal. Mere chance of
are still thasG wlio believe, with a critic of the last century, tliat John-
Bon " has collected every word, good or had. Ibut nu ever used by
luij English wriMc." Dr. WitharBpoon, JForks (ad. 1802), Vol. 4.
p. 472. English literntuK proper beln^ t&kcn to date froiD a.d, 12S0,
if Dr. Johnson has recorded even a litlio o( iia vocabiilnry. — both
words and senses being intendvd by this eiiircssiun, — be hiia done in-
tiredibly veil.
NEOTERISM.
circumstaQcea is their infalliljlo dc term iqp tor of tho
true lind the false ; and, somehow, it cannot but be
that their oJd mumpsimus is prei'erable to any new
emnpsimus.' It was not their choice that an alter-
native was not offered to them in the first instance :
but tliere is a fault somowhere ; and, as it cannot lie
in themselves, it must, of necessity, lie in the tardy
and intrusive competitor for their credence. By
prejudices, fullaciea, and conftised reasonings, such
us these, truth is stifled, error is propagated, and,
especially where the indolence and the ignorance of a
generation or two have authenticated their claims,
bookwrighta the most untrustworthy grow, in popular
opinion, into authorities all but irrecusable. And
with their sins of omission it fares much the same as
with their sins of commission. Point out, be it ever
' WLea astng iiivmpsimna sad imiptimiii, I huTe so often be«n
ruked, in couveriuiliDa, wbat 1 alladed to, thai, peihnfs, the fullnwing
i[aoCalion, to sumo of nij' readers, may not be euperQuous. " Quiilaia
JiuloctOB aacrifluua Anglus per annoa trigintu mumpinmia legEre sglilua
VBt luuo niin^iMUf ; et, quam moneretur & ducCo, qt etrorL-m. emenda-
ral, reapundit, be nolle muture snnm antiquum mwiipiiima iyaas noro
Mimptimu." So— as quoted liy Mr. Dyco — writes Sir KioUu-d taee,
ill hi» De Fruela qui tx Doelfiiia fenipilur (Basil, 1S17), p. 60.
Camden, in his Jifiaami, tella the story in Enylisb, in bia usuul lifuleai
way. H«yliu, in The Mistory cf .... St. Gnrge of Cappudveia
(1631), p. 1 1, spenlls of " thoK lelf-conceited onea wMuli are so Btlff«
— ta King Harry used to aay, — in their new mmpaimui," ka. ; nod,
agnin, in the Gaural Prffats lo bis Sctleiia Vindkata (1667), of " a
vuinglorions afiecCation of adhering to their old ■uumpiimu; ns King
Jliury uaed lo aay." Was Heylia onaware of the origin ol' the aaj-
ingF Or did the old loyalist think that a jest ia iiot duly ucuredited,
until {Atronized hy a great man t Also ue Ueylin's^ FuU Siialiim,
4o. (1666), p. 413. and -Era.a™ Sulwiwm (1B69), Part 1, p. Ufl.
Sir I'homua Elvot ollndts to tlie anecdote quoted abore. Sve Tht
(lavfrmar (lfi31),' fol. 173 (ed. 1580). BentLey, too, frta acquainted
with it.
80 conclusively, tliat they have passed by, unnoticpil,
matters which, demanded record, yet thoir silence
shall have as many champions as their discourse.
No doubt they were men of research ; they were
bound to sift and to cull ; and they must have been
governed, in what they did, by reasons which, though
not proclaimed, may be presumed to be unanswer-
able. The entertainment of these sophistries and
suppositions, which are none the less persuasive for
seldom iludiug a voice, can alone account for the
profound confidence which is still reposed in certain
English lexicographers and grammarians.
The lexicographer and the grammarian are tied,
primarily, to functions for the most part purely his-
torical. Like any one else, they have a perfect right
to speculate, over and beyond registering facts ; but
they have no right to do as, at variance with all the
rest of the world, they so often do, and that is, palm,
ofi' their own whims and theories, as if the net result
of the most approved usage, Coekeram, for instance,
ordains, in the name of elegance, that babblers de-
hlaterate, that naughty children should be depalmaled,
that bread and buna are pistated, and that biera
are to be superseded by mndapiles. Cobbett ' teaches
I A Qrammar of the Engliih Language, Section 108. I have given
onljr EpocimeoB uf Cobbett'a bnrbamin^.
" The mere undurstttoding is carelesa about history, hnving «et up
oertain abBtraDtiona tu ita stead : i^noniiKie, too, \a careltes about his-
tory. Tho lUETO Hoderstanding aeEka ttflet uiuformity, atripa off tho
diatinetionB of things, nnd trips W bring them, as far as poBsible, with-
ia the cimge of a single generalization ; ignorauDe, too. delights in that
simplicity which saves it the tronhle of thought. The cnmbined in-
fluence of these two nKuntii may be seen in Cobbett* s Grammar ; for,
in him, thej coexist in the very liighest degrou, ^'otliing oan b«
• that we should proBounce and write blowcd, bunted,
casitid, dinged, draiced,freezed, grou-ed, menned, slinged,
spatted, springed, atinged, drided, sKceped, sirimmcd,
swinged, throwed, Ihrusled, weared, weeped} Dr.
Webster, in his more unreasonable days, was pleased
to prescribe bawble, clew, fciher, fiber, gayly, luster,
meager, melasses, somber, specter, theater, traveler, savior.
clearer a.ai EhrEwder thnn that Grammar, so far ax tiis HstcqIi'bii
untlorgtanding can aupply the want of intellectual discipline, and oi
philoanphlcal and philological knowledge. But, from his ignorance of
othuc laagaagea, and o£ the history of his own,— on ignorance on
wbioh, of course, he prides himseli, — lie is frequently wrong, and
here, ea in other mattere, is thorougli -going in hie mietalies. That
Cohbett, as nciting the two elemenU of tUe JBCoMniml spirit in Buoh
perfection, should he averee to what our grammariana cull irre^lar
verbs, and iboald he deiirous of eotting np one invsriahle form, a kind
of ten-pound frinchiBe, without any regard to the difference of citcum-
Btnnces, for nil verhs without eiccption, was natuiiilly to be expected;
and, accordingly, he draws up a long schedule A of irregular verba to
be lummarily got rid of," Archdeacon Hare, in The Fhiloiogieal Ma-
teum. Vol. 1 (1832), pp. 660, 661,
' Dr. Johnson's ruling, in his Qrammar, ae to the preterites and past
participles of certain Tsibe, ia peodiar. Bneefhtd, caCthtd, raught
(for rtecluj), and teachid he allowa as preterites ; abid, tiie, tmil,
thrive, ivril, &c. &c., as both preterites and past participles; ai'o>»,
iere, thoat, drove, firnoah, rude, roie, ilrovi, looi, teare, &a. &o., a* past
participles. SitUii, without alternative, he giTea aa the past participle
of tit. Did he ever vaature to write it? But his liberality, also,
«hould he eiempli6ed. Regarding ihfar, for instance, he ia very
acuommodating, in that he girel us a choice from among s/iare, ili'ire,
ttud ihtarid, as its preterite, and between thort aad aheared, as ila
pitst participle.
By the way, ihort, as the prcterilfl of iheer. Dr. Webater'a edilora
call " obsolete", tboiigli they And it used by Mr. Tennyson. I
■honld be rather surpriacd to hear anything but thore, in England.
High and Inw alike use it there. I give aomc refenncvs for it, old and
recent. John Nordcn, J Siiifull Maii» Sutacr {IUSS), tol. 8B v.
Ilonry Earl of Monmnulh, AdverUiemeMi from I'nmnaui (IBofi),
p. 312. Cowper, Iliad, Book 23, 1. 172: Oili/airi,, Ho,>k 24, I. 51.
Lord Lytton, What will ht da with il t (ad. 1859'i,yQ\.'i,'5.^'a.
arid a boat of other personalities,' with aeoree of pro- "
nunciationa as outlandish as aticieni, angel, bedizen,
dSaf, primer, and the utterly un-English see,' as the
last letter of the alphabet ; and his countrymen have
been so foolish aa to adopt whole categories of his
vagaiies.
In precisely the same way. Dr. Latham, in what
he is pleased to call /m Dictionary,^ lately published,
1 Every rflad«r of old English literature Imaio thiit very few of
ihGae BptUings are noveltiiis. But, ia tlie preec-nt diij, Ibe; aie, to a
Iwfce extont, AmericanianiB.
All the world, I take it, has, foe ft generstion or more, laid tha
Gtrera on the aatepenult of inimical,- and yet Mr. B. H. Smart, in
hi> third edition of Wali^a SicliBnary, p. lii., nole BO, soya, of Dr.
'Wtbaler, foe sanclioning this proniinEialJon, that he "seta Rt liefliince
tha longH and ihorts of Stan and Oxford, (if he knows anvthini; of
them), anil, in all such cases, with republican contumucy, follows the
uneducated tendenoiea of Englieh speeth."
This EtofT about "republican contumacjr " and its deplorable con-
eamitanta waa, douhtleas, grateful to Mr, Smart's Hrislocriftic putrons,
to whom facta were little oc nothing, so long as Americans were well
reviled.
The great mistake made by Dr. 'Weheter, his spelling apart, conaiited
in liis awuming that the prononoiation of tho heat educated Americans
of hia day wa< the true standard (or the rest of their fellow-citixGna ;
and that pronunciation deviated from the English, by a conaiderable
heritage of archaisms and Scotticisms.
On the inexpedieace of two standards of onr language, one foe each
aide of the Atlantic, I may touch at some other time.
' Of 3 Ur. Wflbster says; "It ia pronounced m«." Bo he has
taught Americana lo call it; but this fact did not warrant him in
stating roundly what he knew Ui be, with regard to all Britons, totally
false.
Dr. Webster's editors mark the word ifrf, on their own authorily, as
" obsolete". Thbwill seem strange to Engliebmen, who never give
I any other name. Are the afoces^d editors grossly ignorant } Or do
they take up the position, that only the English eurrent in America
deserves to bo regarded as proper English f
The abstraction of i Mr. Do Qnincey calls stdily. Worki, Vol. 15>
p 243.
' ArclideacoD Tadd cnhrgcd Hi. Johnson's JJicifoiiory not a little, and
has, without giving a hint of their conventional
orthography, foisted upon us aile, alko/tol, appall,
awless, or, benum, henegroe, Miin, and a great many
more of hia private and other peculiarities. Nor iH
this all, by any means, or the worst. Despite the
waniinga afforded by his numerous predecessors, and
in defiance of the scholarship of our age, with its
exaction of thoroughness aa a test of literary work-
manship, he hita made hia election to walk, in the
main, in the old i>ath3. So far oa can be gathered
from hia pages, ahbeij may have been first used by
Lord llacaulay ; ably, by Sir Edward Creasy ; and
adjerliral, by Dr. Latham himself : the attempt to
define the antiquityof a word not falling within the
scope of his otiose endeavours. Again, though it ia
a laudable principle to certify the existence of a term,
by adducing an illustrative extract, there is no ex-
cuse, where such extracts are not at hand, for
rejecting, after the manner of Dr. Latham in
almost every page, words which, immediately on
their being named, every one recognizes to bo aa
current, among us, as the air we breathe.' It may
muddlwl it in about tlio same proporthin, hut, Bflir all, professed to ba
only an editor. Dr. Iiatham takes the Iriiit of their comhini'd Ubonrp,
cnlls it a haais, makea some indgniflciuit additions, and ^tbs the result
bis own name.
■ Not unusual are, omitted under o .- ahlaUhip, ahhar, y.n., aMmf,
atmliUuniiin, abm-livmevi, ahiraleeimn, abunlaiiil, abtlainer, abstrnmlti,
asefltrator.atfintiBti, aeciirMan, oeeotaiitthiiitjf, aecaunlnHlship, afguim;
aenage, atriBuinioialy, aeraial, addilim, aiiquaei/, adtqiiatenm, oMr-
lieily, itdifniii, a^ttdtnatar, a^Hdieatt, v.n., adoptpr, edorably, attemtr,
OiftwaWMiHW, a^tetidtea, uffittmgl]/, aforelhimgU, age, T.n., eggrMtt
aggreaivily, offffrmitm'ia, aimUaly, aimltiitnaii, air-tight, algebrsi-
tally, atimugi, aliyhi, adj.. al/evialar, ollun'nfffy, emhaaadorihip, amtti-
<tum, amiatililg, omorpAuiH, iiHiiZDfou<,i»igcUciiny,iitig\iintanii.a,wiX-
CHAPTBH V.
be asked, too, whether abnegate, absolirfeness, abiilme»f,
oivlaim, according as ' are rare ; whether ncpphaiid,
ailiiale, aUision, altisonant, antipaH, aniUcripi are not
rare ; and whether abetment and agnatic are obsolete.
The judgments hereon of Dr. Latham, and equally
the bulk of hia judgments, differ, it may safely be
concluded, from those of every one who has qualified
himself to sit in the court of English philology. To
hll page after page with pai'ticulars of hia short-
comings, under each of the heads glanced at above,
would cost only a little time and a little search."
More than this, thousands upon thousands of words
used by our old writers, and entered by other lexico-
Ut, gimiliilfdor,anti-mtridiaa,anlt-M«ptiai,anle-peniill, anthfr, aoriatle,
apvritnl, sti., appetia, apple-dampUng, applicani, uppnciaiiii; aquarium,
UrchoBhgical, atsfNiimt, asionanee, ataonaiital, aKuagfi; mtraddle,
allBeh, T.n., audiileiieis, aiilie, avatar, aveynge, v.n.
Among tbese words, eien raoh n pariat as Lord Manulaj has used
aif/ttdiealf, .v.n., eggremimlg. alimiage, aimltaineis, nlleviiilor, ambaiia-
derihip, aiiglomaiiia. apprecialor, anHiiiiinliil, and ettaeA, T.n. ; and at
laiHt half the real; he would not, I suppose, have ohjeot«d to osing.
Further, we find ailiiKaaure>ni>nt, hut not admeaiure; amativnifti,
but not amatirf ; and the adverbs alaoimmly, ansuvrltit/y, entieipa-
titetj/, antiphranlicaUy, aphorialieKlly, but not the adjectives which they
praanppoae. And why should JrinninK he honoured with presentment,
but not ArminianUm ! • Why Aratism, but not AmineiuiitM f All
iul is omitted ; and adjutanty has nu sense assigned to it bendM that
of " snistuice." But such etricturca are endless.
NeverthelesB, the judgment, touching Dr. Latham's Siction/iry, ut
an English jonmnl of bigh literary eharsoter is, that, " whftterer roam
tlidre mftj be for improvement on Che aide ot sntiquitj, it in a most
admirahle repertory fur all that regards tbe lat«at strides of the lan-
guage." The Guarima, 1871. p. 1396.
' Thii, I believe, not only is, but ulways has been, mora common than
aeenrdCngly tti.
= Fuller lists, from which those here given are abridged, will b»
found in two lalttra whidh I contributed to Tht Scadtr, Vol. 3 (1864),
pp. 833, 684; and VoJ. fi (1866), pp. i2, 13.
griiphors, or by glossarists, are ignored by Dr. La-
tliiini ; the neoterisms of the poat-Jolinsonian period
are, to him, in great measure, as ii' they were not ;
and, in matters of etymology, he has scarcely
emerged from the eighteenth century. Nor, if he
has here been perstringed but gently, is it because he
has merits which challenge tenderness to his defects.
And such is the latest and most pretentious of our
manufacturers of English dictionaries ; a brood to
■which, at present, it is idle to resort, if we would
know even the wealth of our language, as exhibited
either by our forefathers or bj' our contemporaries,'
■ Before taking leave of Dr. Lutliain'a Dictimiarg, — of whiuh I Lava
bere entmined, aad examined very auperjlciallv, but a minute portion, —
I will quote and laiCiciKO, bj way of apacimtn, two or three eilracta.
" Ariitarehy. : Body of good men in power. Rm-e.
" The gronnd on wbich 1 would build hia chief praise, to some of the
ariitnTehy and sour eensures of these dajs, requirea, fiiat, an opolujj'y. —
Sarringtan, Briif View of thi Chiirc/i of EnglaHd, p. Ifi3."
This ar^cle is taken, in the block, from Atchdeacon Todd'a additions
to Johnson ; and the Arohdeanon must baTe been sligbtly beuiueed, when
he delined aritlarchy m we have seen, ofisring, as its ctymotogj,
"iptaroq, greatest, iind dpjij, government." The allusion is to thnt
tfpa at rigid critics, the titDiouB camMentator AriEturchus. The word
ia formed tromjlrulflreA.aa the oMoAafaciffry is formed from pAnrarfi'**;
and it denotes what we might express by arialarthiim. Archdeacon
Todd'a definition and etymology are substantially copied by Dr.
"Webster ; while Dr. Webster's cdiwrs, BBtiafled with the old doflni-
liou, derive the word from " Or. ofiiarapxKi best-ruling, Irom Spioroc,
btiBt, and apj^iiv, to rule." Dr. Woroeeter, who, just beftare the word,
hm ariatarch and arisCarchian, and eorrecUy defined, gives, with an
apprOBOh to eorrortnesa, " a body of severe oritios ", os its Bignlfi cation,
but most thoughtlessly etymologiies it by itpiirroc and apxii-
On loolling into Sir John Harington,— for so his name is spelled on
his title-pngB,— I find 1 " Howheit, the ground on which I would build
bii ehiefe praise (to lomo of the Ari'larshy and sowre censures of
these dniEs) Tei[uireB, flrst, an Apologie." Ariatarehj, like nil proper
lies, und a((j(iclives therefrom, is ilaljci*ed in Harin^Von.-, «&4,\(^
Amonj^ proverbial sayings wLich, though half-
Msehoods, pass for whole truths, is the ono that
reforMioc K> tha original, Dr. Latham might, possihly. haTa aTniiled a
repetitinn pf Arclideacou Todd's ludicrous and unecholarlilie error.
" drmlet. t. Bracelet.
find. Iloniir.
Every Dyrapii of tho flood lier tresses rending-,
Throws off her armlet of pearl in the main. Bnjdin."
Johniran's two Rrst, nnillnstrBtBcl, defioitiDDs are omitted: "1. AUllle
arm ; as, an armlet of tlie sen. 2. A piece of armour for the arm."
The remaining deflnition is injudininusly reduced, m above, from " a
bruuelet far the arm". For, by a lirncelel, wlien the ward is nnqunli-
fled, WB understand an omnment worn on the wriat, or just aboyo it.
The omaraonU worn, hy orientals and others, much higher up than the
wrist, ore instinctively imlled, by English -speaking people, arraleti, not
iraaltlK. Phillip Sruhbnfl wrote, in 168S, of " hracelettps, and (trme-
letlti of goliiv:' Tht Analomif of Aimea {Td.lBSS), p. 76. And Dr.
Kewman writes, in his CallUta, p. 39 ; " They glitter, from head to
foot, with combs, hrooches, necklaces, eallare, eaiiin;^, arnlcti, brace-
lets, &0.-
Further, Dr. Latham should not have left ituRnotieed, that aiiNfef, In
denote an}>thing but ' little arm '. is an abnonnal dimtnntive. But of
Eueh considerations he aeems to take little heed.
Dr. Johnson defines the adjective texagataif by " agi-d sSiij jears ",
but gives no extract for it. Arohdeaoon Todd altera this deflnition to
" threescore ", and qootes Lord Chesturfleld'B Comnum Snnw : " Sani-
gmnry fair ones, and upwards, whether they wore handsome or not in
the last century, ought, at least, in this, to rfiduce themaelvea to n
decenny and gravity of dress luited to their jeara." Dr. I.atham
aimply reprints nil thie ! I may oM, that there ia older authority than
Lori Chesterfield, (or texauamTy. SeeGlaavill, /Vm Ultra (1608), p.
23. The Tord is there a substantive!.
The substantive mmmitl, omitted by Dr. Johnson, ia given by
Amhdeacon Todd, who tails us it is " from luin ", and defines it to be
"one who funns an abridgement." It is observable that the llrat of
hb two quotations, which speaks of " Summi'ti and Canonists ", did
rot suggest the correct meaning of the term. Dr. l.athnm punctually
reproduces the ignorant vapieneaa of the Archdeacon. And fir. Eich-
ardson ia in the same boat with them. The tunmUla were Hugo de
B. Victor, Thomas Aquinas, &c,, for whom, and tlieir writings, see
Ducan^. Subjoined area few Teferences for aummiit, which U not a
I NROTKBISM. 145
arrogatea a pi'esutnption in favour of whatever is
Gsfciblished.' To confute this universal propoailion,
it is enough merely to ask wlien it began to hold
good. If the adage imported less of compliment to
the sagacity of our predecessors, it would do much
more of justice to that of their descendants. Wise
as our predecessors were, why may not we be wiser ?
In what had they any advantage over us ? Is not a
small body of facts a leas safe basis of induction than
a large body of facts P Or has the faculty of turn-
ing accumulated experience to good account perished
from off the earth ? Neither of these two last ques-
tions would any one dare to answer in the negative.
And yet, from indolence, issuing in selfishness and
timidity, — in a word, thanks to the spirit of conserv-
atism, which infects, more or less, all minds hut the
truly energetic, and hence enlightened and disinter-
ested, — the anile aphorism still triumphs, solemnly
devolving, from age to age, its loathsome spawn of
shams and inveracities. With just apprehension of
reason, the conservative comes to tiiko his stand
I solely on the imagination. For, at transition, as
very miusunl word in niir old writer!. Bishop Bale, .WcW Wnria
(1849), p. 3o0. Ilr. Donnp. ftp>(!'o-«mi-(F/r(1610),PrefnPP, eiff. D I,
■nd pp. 229, 2S0 : Ai'afAniiuCM (lir9t,un<1nted,odilion),p. 32. Gntaker,
Of tht Xatiiri itud Use of LnD (eiL 1027), p. 251. Dr. Rioliordaon
quntea Bp. Bull for it.
I Pwellint; on pxrticutan of the eort abnre instnncei^, I mi^ht j^o on
\ for hunilreds of pages. And T here epcak lilerally nilhin cnnipngs.
' Ever and snnn we are rpminded, in mnoh the samp spirit nf
exsjnieratinn, that aineerity is alnnyn to he hnnnurrd ; though, prM-
ticdlly. nur respnet for it ia confined to those with whoae wars of
Ihinltinfc anc! noting we hure eomelhinB in eommon. To thi- thii)r«
niiirder is a sort of hi|;h mnss; but their pitty Iiaa not eicn eB.'mv:^
them a niche in any Dictionary or npUgiona.
■ _» -
146 CHAPTER V.
necessitated by change, the imagination revolts, and,
therefore, is prone to resist change immediately,- —
no matter how strongly it may be recommended by
obvioua expedience, — rather than try lo deal with
transition on philosophical principles, the bridge
by which we pass, when we pass consciously, from
the old to the new. Hence, spontaneity, conserv'
atism unconfessedly teaches us, if it ever was to be
trusted, is to be trusted no longer; and human
nature is a thing to be repressed, not educed. And
thus undivided allegiance tfl prescription and au-
thority at last resolves itself into servile apery, the
great motive to which is, far too often, the behoof of
its inculcators, to the disservice and thraldom of
their disciples. As regards everything else, so as
regards language, the spirit of rigid conservatism
operates as a principle of unalloyed evil and mischief.
Here, however, just as elsewhere, happily it is far
less acted on than preached ; or the result would be
to reduce us, for arrest and inertia of articulateness,
to the standard of Caffraria or China. But, in pre-
sence of the appliances for thought, and the incent-
ives to employ them, which are afforded by modern
civilization, retrogression is simply impossible. Lin-
gually, as well as otherwise, the English-speaking
peoples cannot but press forward to better things
than they now enjoy ; and the language of our re-
mote posterity may be aa superior to our own, as our
own is superior to that of Mande\-ille or WiclifFe.
Languages, like nations, have their stages of de-
velopment, apparent station a riness, and decay; but,
ao Jong as a people advances in intellectual cultiva-
tioi), its medium of expreasion is never obsorved to
I deteriorate in quality. In the interval which was
I measured by the accession of Queen Elizabeth and
1 the death of Milton, a general mental activity con-
I curred with a wide-spread conviction, that, poetry
ig left out of account, English of the old stnrap
I was inadequate to the purposes of literature. With
r laudable inti-epidity, the writers of that period help-
led themselves, and without stint, to new words from
I every available quarter. "While a large share of
I what they ventured singly at last turned out to bo
I ephemeral, a still larger share of what they ventured
common was promptly engrafted on the Tulgar
I tongue.' The age of finical dilettantism and emaa-
' For a oonsiderable length of time, the PurilnnB wtre in un niau
B behind utber English Christiniis, in point o£ profane unil [lolite li'aru-
ind IL muBli, ibDCKtoTt, have bmm tram motivcB a£ humiinitiiriiin
■ipvliey thtit tlicjr (1ci^lin«l to iwi^U tlie fluoJ of nluBsidsiD, genuine anil
f ajinriaus, nitli which their riiaU, eapcciiillf the eleriea among them,
Intmdfttad the lilemture of the siiUnnth and acventeenth centuriea.
Tu any uno conversant with tho thuologiual effusions of the Church at
England in that age, the following pungent dvUncntion, from tho pen
of H sturdy Fnriton, will commenJ itsalf ub not in the lunst ovar-
L cbargGd; and the pedantry of the I'laaa of writers reflected ou Efarcetj
I improved. Tram about 1580, for snnie ninety years.
" As for the strange manner of prtaiiliing which ie in use in rnnny
■.placei, both in tho Universities and elsewhere, thrre is no man wl'11
d hut, if hee knoweth it, bee iSoth eiceedingly pity it. One, iis
I thnn|;h the pulpit were but aa a scaffold, in which he, like a Master
I of Defence, were to play his prizes, and to give testimony of iiii wit,
I playetli upon every word, and descsnteth upon every ktier in his
I text ; and, as thoogh the Scripture were but > rattle for children and.
1 foolea to make tpurt withall, he tosat-th it hither and thilher, and will
' lie to offer it any violence, to &ame it to an imagined cunrcit,
I draw it to an idle purpose. Another, as if his pnrpoEe were
eiliely to amaie the vnlgar, and to offrijht and aatonish the mnltilude,
nounlelh alnfl, and is all, in his great tvords and new-coyncd phrasei^.
nore fit for some mimick or tragedian then a muUBter ot \.\ie tita^'^.
148 CHAPTER V.
culate elegance, with its paralytic imitators of Tem-
ple and Addison, soon afterwards followed;^ and
this was succeeded by the era of galvanized sesqui-
pedalism and sonorous cadences, inaugurated by
Johnson, with his train of Hawkesworths, Cumber-
lands, and Parrs, — a brood of pygmies essaying to
wield a weaver's beam. But elephantine graces ajid
their awkward mimics maintained, as was fitting,
but a brief-lived supremacy. Even in the days of
Johnson, however, the English air was beginning to
be redolent of freedom. Whether this portent of
doomsday and perdition, — fructifying in the Ameri-
A third, to gaine the opinion of a profound man, tbat looketh into
matters of more depth then the common sort, rubbeth over the .un-
savory writings of some moath-eaten frier, and, by an uncoth fashion
of teaching, together with a multitude of allegories and intricate dis-
tinctions, mazcth both himselfe and all those whose unhappy chance it
is to be his hearers. A fourth, to be reputed a good linguist and a man of
great reading, stuffeth his sermon with a legion of allegations, and en-
terlaccth it with many shreddings of Latine and Grceke ; and, by
that meanes, though his doctrine perhaps may bee profitable, yet he
confoundeth the memory of the diligent and attentive hearer. Thus,
while men, being sieke of the Pharisaicall disease, love the praise of
men more then the praise of God, and preferre the ostentation of their
owne supposed learning before the edification of Gods Church, the
people is brought either into such an amazednesse, as they thinke that
anything may be made of the Scripture, or to such an unsetlednesse in
judgement, as that they doe rather hunt after variety of teachers, for
their strange manner of preaching, then seeke for sound instruction,
for their owne better edifying." Samuel Ilieron (1604), The Preaclhers
Flea (ed. 1624).
The passage here quoted occurs in the first volume of Hieron's col-
lected works, p. 533.
1 Gray, writing in 1742, says that the English tongue "is too
diffuse, and daily grows more and more enervate.'* Works, Vol. 2,
p. 159.
He has not thus described the English of 1742 at all amiss. And
very like it, with the addition of localisms and general slovenliness, is
the English of most Americans at the present day.
NEOTERISM. 149
can War of Independence and the French Revolu-
tion, — were owing to the inductive philosophy, to
John Wilkes, to the spread of science, to the Devil,
or to all together, toryism was at a loss to resolve :
but there it was, past all gainsaying. Britain was,
at last, effectively awaking from its long slumber of
acquiescence in things established. Our very lan-
guage shook off its nightmare, and once more
breathed as if broad awake, and no longer under the
palsying spell of hidebound custom.^ Men of the
* Cowper, in his private letters, imposed no restraint upon himself,
as regarded verbal coinages ; and, in this respect, he differed nothing
from the generality of his contemporaries. When addressing the
world, he professed, however, strict conservatism in his phraseology ;
and his neoterisms we arc, therefore, bound to receive as unpremedi-
tated. In the preface to his lliad^ we read : *' I have cautiously
avoided all terms of new invention, with an abundance of which, per-
sons of more ingenuity than judgment have not enriched our language,
but incumbered it." Where archaic, he very rarely deviates, in his
diction, from such familiar precedents as Shakespeare, Milton, Dry-
den, and Pope. His archaism would, in a writer of the present day,
be thought rather profuse. Yet not only words, and senses of words,
recalled from the past, but many which are, presumably, personal to
himself, are interspersed through his translation of Homer. Of what
may be such I have made a list of no fewer than eighty which are un-
registered by Dr. Webster's editors. Passing by the novelties of
meaning, among the novel or unusual words, to name only a few, are
architravedy athletic^ sb., cast-off^ sb., cauldronedj cityward^ columnalf
erystalledf emtoined^ desirables^ drunkardy adj., handftU, adj., helmeted^
hovely v.n., leftwardj adj., misdeem^ v.a., mytholoffize, v.a., overbubble,
v.a., overpitchy v.a., phalanxed^ p^-opend, v.a., revulse, v.a., sepulture,
v.a., ftpearmanshipy tridental, tripart, adj., updart, v.n., upwetit^ yean-
ling, adj., youngling , adj. Apart from the eighty words spoken of
above, Cowper virtually reinvents, where he does not borrow, acumin-
atedy debark, v.n., glutinated, intellected, invigour, v.a., market, v.a.,
mendicate, v.a., pash, v.a., procumbent, resupine, sacrijical, saginated,
shive, speech, v.n., unchild, v.a., upridge, v.a., uprun, upsend, upstart,
v.n., upswarm, v.n., &c. &c. A certain share of all the forementioned
terms were, without much question, of the poet's own minting, and
unconsciously so ; and we have, in them, an interesting illustration of
most contrary modes of thinking, and resemblin
each other in nothing bat their sound literary cul
lure, unconacioualy .influenced by the spirit of th)
age, agreed in forswearing, as to the use of thei
in other- tongue, the supine parrotry which ha(
formed so important an ingredient of their educa
tion.' And thus we are brought to the fathers c
the English which now prevails, — a language ra
tional, natural, copious, and expressive, for thoM
who require nothing more, and, for such aa aspire t
philosophize, precise and comprehensive, at least fai
beyond all old- school precedents.
We live, then, in an age when purism i
longer a religion. And yet it behoves us to remem
bor, that, if purism is ridiculous, neoterism, whetha
in words or in style, may easily become nauseating
"Propriety of thought and propriety of diction"
says Lord Macaulay,'' expanding Horace,' " are coni'
monly found together. Obscurity and affectatioi
are the two greatest faults of style. Obscurity o
expression generally springs from confusion of ideas;
and the same wish to dazzle at any cost, which proi
duces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likelj
the espansiou of TQCttbuIaiy which our language was beginning I
undergo, at the hands of sthulars, often quite anawarea to thcmsBlTe
in the lost quarter of the ciglitoctith centur]'.
' Between the time of Milton's deoth and the l>irtb-da)' of fn
Enifliab, there yiete doiena of eicellr-nt writers, we all know, what
grout nini was neither mere ease and cleganee, nor formal gTaildn<
quence. Still, that interval was, markedly, one of imitation ; wtd tin
rahUe of litcratnra who peopled it framed their atyle, and tied dc
Iheir phraseology, after certain models then eiclasiTcly in vogue.
* £siirff B» Maehiarelti.
' "SciiheaH recte aapere est ct priacipium et fons,'"
I to produce sophistry in his reasoningH." The study
after singularity of expression is, moreover, a weak-
3 which soon betrays itself. Nor is this all. It
fails of its end; and a disciplined taste recoils from
fiintasts and contort ionists like Mr. Carlyle, Arch-
bishop Trench, and Mr. ISrowniug, with just the
sort of feeling provoked by the antice of a clever
bufi'ooii. It seems, indeed, aa if eccentrics of this
cast must be constantly repeating to themselves,
with Tragedio :
" Me, for my novelty, let oil adore ;
For, as I wril^, none ever wrote before." '
The real fortiKzers of our language, so far as they
have fertilized it consciously, have been actuated by
motives of utility. Trummelled by the poverty of
our vocabulary, they have honestly striven to enrich
it ; neither aiming to be applauded for their good
services, nor deterred by the obloquy of purists.
, And our verbal poverty has, oftentimes, prcsst-d
I most heavily on those precisely who had the fullest
I command of our verbal I'iches. WiUiam Taylor
I judiciously lays down, that "Seology ought not to
1 be pursued for its own sake, but only when the ex-
tant terms of the language are defective, or not pre-
' ciae, and when a definite and convenient exprossion
[ can thus be introduced in their stead." ^ " Unusuiil
' Fieldiiig, T/ii Pltaiurti of tie Town.
' The Mtmthlg Rniicw, Vol. lUO (1823), p. 23. Elsewbcre Tayliir
J ghrewdly obsBrves, tbat " 4 aew or ait uiieuninion word iilwujs attraota
I notice to tbe phnus in vrbiub it occure : and, bonce, it is well placed
'n those sentencHs which merit th« panss of utteatiuu, and will beHr u
eiaiirelj aiamination." lUd.. Vol. 106 (1825), p. 4B2.
Tajbr'n own coinages, patruniied impocta, and revirals, wbich.
and new-coined words ", aaya Coleridge,' "are, doubt-
leaa, an evil ; but vagueness, confusion, and im-
perfect conveyance of our tlioughtsare a far greater."
Not content with barely enunciating a grievance,
Coleridge took practical steps to redreaa it ; and his
marvellous subtilty and power of analysis could
never have been fully appreuiated, had he shrunk
from a phraseology unshackled by ordinary restric-
tiona. Nevertheless, we are told, by Madame de
Stael, that " il n'est point, en g^n^ral, de symptome
plus s4r de la sterilite des id^es, quo I'invention des
mots." ' It could, then, be nothing short of absolute
cannot amnnnt to fawer than a fhnusoni), dwindle, if lealed by hia
laudable criteria, and hj Iho exigMieies of Eiiphonv, to a meagre list
indeed. Mnat of tbem ore nanual, certainly; itill, either heoauie
there were ehnrter and as regalarly formed Bubstitutea for them, or be-
caaae they ntFended the Gur, or for some other good reason, itery few
of them, if any, bare been accepted. Here ia a sample of anme nf the
more eitraordinnry among them: oHBMfpio', amiiHaiilily, onnitwM,
epartnienlal, altreapmejit, iiiadt/icn, amdeatil^, eangtmrBiit, emaidtr-
atise, dffiai, delaiiinl, diipiritude, trnpoiummeiit, ^urstioH, etidgale,
expUHdian, rxteniialBty, Aozsn'y, JiypirtprtfiMie, imprejudiee, inlir-
tttaiitity, jwalary, meptfUtidinetii, mantnlily, nwtfrttral, minvtiem,
memtntaHailf, mmetrnt, tnanopoloui, moratory, tuolngom, tieftirehjiy,
»6lei»al, rngmoiu, mhntim, phyiiurrat, pHri/aU, relainal. riKalrviti,
mltUitinHt, tearrm, ttrutinmaly, tienriaus, mlieilatc, mgritgataFj/,
mjiportantt, ttrnporanmu, trfpiiuty, Hbiguariaii, iindiaroU, uahtipptn,
volupfg, tpildir, T.n.
' Biagraphia Ziletvria, Chapter 12. Coleridge baa also said, ger-
vanely : '' To comej his meaning precisely is a debt which nu author
owes to hia readers. He, therefore, who, tn escape the charge of
pedantry, will rather be misundoratood than startle a fastidialiE critic
with an tmnsual term, may he compared to the man whn shonld pay
his creditor in base or counterfeit coin, when he bad gold or silver
ingots in bis posseunon, to the precise amount of the debt ; and ihia,
nnder the pretence of their unshapeliness and wont of the mint-iin-
preeaion." GhMrfh and Slate, &C. (ed. 1830), p. IIS.
^ " II est dnngErcux de doniier ton approbation am neolngue*.
Les idcea uourellea qu'ila pr^teadent ne puutoir emettrc u«cc lus rua-
idiocy that has so polluted the waters which wo draw
from what was once the " well of English undefilcd " ;
f and the contemporaries of MM. Guizot and Victor
I Hugo must be stark imbeciles.'
Of new words we may enumerate at least five dis-
I tinct sources. Those words which may be called in-
spired are due, almost wholly, to the common people ;
others are elaborated by the learned ; others are iiu-
id by conquest, as the Norman element of the
Kuglish, and the Semitic element of the Indian ver-
[ naculars; others, all the world over, are imported
I by commerce ; and others, still, are introduced from
' abroad by fashion, or are borrowed thence for their
usefulness. It is with the two first classes and the
last that we are concerned practically. Inspired
neoteriaras, as springing from the needs of the
illiterate, often respond to a general need, and are
I easily enfranchised. Besides, being, mostly, mono-
t, la plupart da temps, de< rSieriea r^bnuffijoi.
I BouTeuC ausei leur ombiirms pravieiit de uo i[u'ilE ignoreat lear mecier,
ce q^u'ils ne oonnnisseiil |Nia un ossez gntnd noinbre de TOuables, et
lavHat poict appliqiur, dd gionper it propia oeui qqi gant a hoc
toaition." M. ^tauaa Wnj, Jiemarqiua mr la Laague Fiaafabe,
. 1, pp. 172, 173.
iL'eipirience d^montre . . que les talents de eecoiid onlro aont
I teax qni chercheut Is plus les termea noureaui." Id., ibid.. Vol. 1,
I pp. 174, 175.
" \a Bray^re, > lata celebrated writer amang- tbtun [the Freuali],
I va^t use of many new terms vbicb are nut tu be found in any of tlie
wmmnn liictionnriBs befunj his time." Swift, A Pi-opamI, &c.
Unwcvar full, or defeotiie, the diRtionHries of hia time may hnve
llflou, L* BrujfirB wauld havu been an ttscaption amiing great writers,
■ if he bail not innoTited, in Ilis language, fyea Swift did lo, little ai
imn to have (uipeoied the fuui. A» to dictionaritia, the Dpuii
i( uf Ihcin, as If lie auppuaed their uonteutd wore cuuiiltiiti^tiL'd
I bcynul Ike I
Byllablea, they are easy of temembrance ; and, —
wliere not abbreviations, — being formed on the most
obvious analogies, they are rarely exceptionable as
illegitimate formations. However less immediately
valuable for popular use, the coinages of scholars, in
proportion as they supply recognized wants, likewise
make good their value eventually, by obtaining the
rights of citizenship. Intercourse with foreign
countries and their inhabitants contributes further
to augment our liugual wealth. And thus our ex-
chequer is constantly increasing ; and, at the same
time, its contents are constantly liable to mutation.
Once it was not so ; but, now-a-days, we may accept,
as an indubitable argument of a nation's heathy
activity, both intellectual and material, the fact of
tho expansivenoss and mobility of its language.
Strange things are to be found in the history of
the words which we have, on the one hand, corrupt-
ed, and, on the other hand, have retrieved from cor-
ruption. With a list of a few of these, and a few
remarks thereon, I shall close this chapter. And a
thoughtful attention to this Hst, ^ort as it ia, will
suffice to impress a variety of profitable conclusions.
The purist may gather, from it, that much which he
accepts simply because it is established, had its origin
in gross ignorance, or in barbarous indifference,
Nor will the philosophic philologist fail to he re-
minded, by it, that there is abundance of work to
be done towards reducing our language to desirable
regularity ; and, in the success which has attended
past labours in that direction, he will find some
small encouragement to hope that future labours
to the same end will not be wholly unavailing.
Every here and tliere, he will perceive, the efforts
which have been made to ameliorate English have
triumphed signally over the resistance of narrow and
stolid conservatism. And farther like efforts will,
doubtless, have a like result. Let the reformer bear
iu mind, however, above all things, that, in order to
tlio effecting of changes in our mother -tongue, he
should guard heedfuUy aguinst undue haste, and the
offering of too many novelties at once, together with
every other impolicy that may alarm the timid, or
otheiTvise raise up obstacles to the realization of his
beneficent project.
WThe old lyvelijhede, a formation akiu to liheUhood;
once meant ' quickness ' ; ^ and Hfelode, in time
changed to lycelode, hjfehoile, &c,,' meant 'way of
life ', and then ' means of living '. Lyvelyheile, mo-
dernized into livelifiood,^ lost its old sense ; ' means
of living ' lost its old expression ; and we now Lave
a marriage between the surviving partners,
RighUcke, probably from mere slovenliness of pro-
nunciation, passed into the mongrel righlcom.*
' As late as 163S, I find : " Thii third, not ocding to tlie other two
ill blitheotno livclihooil, and feature uf boii^, oamu, for rH (tial, short
of tliem in the rest," Jamen Haywnrd, The Baniih'd Virgin, p. 1S3.
< Hieron has a Berman. the riEclicaiiDii to whioh ia dateil in 1616,
r«l3lled Th« Chriitiant Zive-luode, Fhilenion Holluud has iieehdt in
UiA Ct/mpifdie (1832), p. 123.
' Id its preeent meBning, onlj Bpellvd lIcelj/hoBd, this word 1TBS
used hv King Jamos'ii reviaors of the Biblo. in their PrefHee, in 1613.
' With our ri0hlKHt, in [Joint (if hjhriilism, compare, beaidM, the
^Otch iPiyjjijioiM, himihuiciUl or hel/iiicaU, Used bj I'lliUip StubbBs, in
Tfn jinalomit nf jliiurt {15SS), ^p. 211, 232 («1. 1836). Lithgow
lm» AcfAniii. 6bo Tht Toialt IHnaiarai, &c (1632), p. 397.
Beotlej would hurdle liave liiwommended BlubWa ti<n&\ W Vt
[ No doubt we are to trace tlie origin of otir now
lassical helpmate* to a corruption of the "help meet
1 " of the Book of Genesis.^
" Tbe word hsathtii tjomea rrom iBvn)." Wurkt, Vol.
1 comman in the iaji of pre-Bcientifii!
or, vafer. Tmpenie non Mrael audici, ral an
W trupenU, lie safni fit Ibiiiicb. Obriie aunt et aliic mtionea, seio, SBd,
qua) mill! magia arrideat, aut lam probabills vidi^alur, nulla.'' Meric
Cflsaabon, lie Qautuor Litignia CiimmeuMio, Para Prior (1650), p,
SU2.
Of such tMngg the volume here quoted is pretli^ well made up,
thrau^-hoLit.
' ] have called the word claasicsl. Lord Macaulaj' irriCes, ia tho
third ohspter of hia Hldmy : " A waiting woman was generally eon-
le moat Biiitablo helpmate for a pajaon."
L faw refercncea for the eipresaion here follow. Mrs, Suaanna
(Btlivre, A. Sold Str«ie fir a Wifi, Aot S. Vanhrogh and Colley
er, TA«iV!iroferfff(«iflHrf (1728), Acts. Foote, ?»« CommUiert/,
1. Cnmbiidge, Thi Wurld, Xo. 56. Edward Moore, ibid., Ko.
Colmaa and Thoratou. The Cmmiteciir, Sa. 4 j. CDlmaO. Praat
I Bnetat Oceaiiant, Vol. 3, p. 217. Wordaworlh, Paelieal Wurh)
L 18<e), Vol. 4, p. 321. Chiirlfa I.ainb, Final Memorials, 4o..
L 2, p. 106. Soathej', Colloquial, ke. (ed. 1831). Vol. 2, p. 2D9.
* arise Kiagaley, Tmo Ymr, Ago (ed, 1867), Vol. 3, p. 7. Mr.
IBkin, Snaim and Liliet (ed. IS71), p. 77.
'~ ' mponnd to bn defended; and ;et it hu been
d hj- at least two writers of verj high repute. Sea Soutboj, Ltfi
'<y (ed. 1864), Vol. 2, p. 161 : Dr. Newman, Sisearaimi and
III oil Vm-ieua Snbjwtii (1872), p. Ifii. Also aee Mr. Charlca
ngale}-, Tioo Yean Ago. Vol. 2, p. 62. Mr. Jodrell and Dr. Wor-
rri'dibljr name Milton fur it.
Sp. SprnI, under the date of 1692, hus the compound meit-help, for
Sue Tit Sarleian Mimxllanif (ed. OHjs aud Park), Vol. 6,
William Strode writea ot "the yoak ot n mcel hilper." Tht
ai«g Itlaiid (teSS), Act 4, Si^ne 3,
» The following ia tuken from a work printcMl before tho daya of our
thorized version of th<! Bible : " If the oncietita would havo their
« corrected rather with words than blowea, mutOi more ouRht the
10 du alt withall, whom God CBllctb a hflps llkri to us." Tin
■i^eademie, Part 1. (1580), p. 476.
Our periprr/iff, as in the term ' science of perspec-
/ii-e,' ought, by derivative rights, to signify ' micro-
scopy and telescopy ', or ' dioptrics generally ' ; and
yet, in all probability, we shall never return to the
old and correct prospective.
Inasmuch as kerchief, from the Old French couure-
rhef, meana, et3^nolog;ically, ' head- cover ', our poclcel-
Aandhcivhief and neck- handkerchief, when submitted
to analysis, seem to designate articles intended for
most complicated uses,"
Bridal, a word now suggestive of no beverage less
luculent than champagne or sparkling moselle, ori-
ginally meant ' marriage- feast ', and took its name
from the ale which was drunk in honour of the bride.
Anklet, armlet,^ and trrisflef, except to mean ' little
ankle ', &c., originated in pure ignorance ; but no
one would now think of using them in their ety-
mological senses, or of avoiding them in their con-
ventional senses.^
' See Mr. I£. Piii Talbot's Eugliah Elffmolagies, p. 230.
' See the note nt the foot of p. 144, aigira.
» Sfiealifff — for nil th»t Bun Jonson, Gmle, and Milton, willi
Thomas Tnylor, Chnrles Lumb, and (.'oleridge, in later timva, hure
Bhuwu OS the right word, ititHtiitl, — liotda ile ground, and is liketf to
1(0 on liulding il. Howell h.tt uimti^i. Se« Dadana't Gmvi (1(110),
P"-
Nor nnght tUifie lii signity, as it gBnorally dow signifj, 'divine '.
" IMfick liqnor." Sir Thnniaa Urquliart, Trunslatioii of Rabelali;
Vol, 2, p. 11 (ed. 1684), "Jtiific ponfrioalion." Bishop Lavinglon,
^Uimi-u-H Bf M>tk»dM>, &c.,Vol. 2, p. 2iO (sd. 1754). " IMfc
energy", "dnijts furj". Thomes Tnjlor, Tht I'ampilrtrvr, Vol. S
(1816), pp. 94, SS.
" Some produBts we obnei-rc then In he naturally leprnu« ; and such
an miiallj' stmuk with morhijli-k dtformitiia," Franck, Hwthfni
Mcoioiri [cd. 1694). p. 2fl5. The cudins .fick—aovi -/c— has not,
here, it£ proper force.
CHAPTER V.
Almost evcrj'bodv writes aerolite, direnf, /orfi/o,
/roiifispiece, landinape, jxinc/er, posthumous, proiho-
i}otary, rhyme,' and Tiirtar.' Some of these words
once were spelled better than thej' are spelled now ;
I and, when we amended ahhoininable,^ ancient, consort.
" The moat peli-iffe oolumn of stillnass, " Mr. De Qainccy, Worki,
\ VdI. S, p. 261. Hera,"iQiHtpB(ri/I(i"iasiniply 'most jDelfijJnC; and
(wlrifuctioD, with IVlr. De Qmncify, is a. Uiing that Bdmits of degreoi.
And then thste is, as againat the esaet, 1)nt aurfeiriof^, lelryrapheme,
oar lawless tclfj/rmii, lo which is stricll)' applicalile the maxim of the
otvilians, aa rs^ards a. climdestiiie marriage : " Fieri nan debnit, aed.
fcatum. valet" Add the hideous orlhapadic, which Cicero liimaelf
woold llsve auffHred m, for the aake of consniity, to enll tpHlililif.
But I must cat short an cnmncratioD of anomalies, whiah might he
■peoifled to ledioDsneBs.
' Rlmt and ri/ine were among tlio old English farms ; and tliere ia,
Bt IcMt, quite na good ground tii refer (he word to the Anglu-Sainn
riw, of unknown parentage, as to fivdjiag. Mr. De Quiueey — Vol. 13,
p. 102, foot-note, — aaaerta, nith his usual pereniptorintsa, that "tlie
Greek rythoieii [nic] waa, cerlaiolj, the remote fuunlaiu" of rkyitie.
' TThj, by thu hy,— as in Tid. 12, p. 266, foot-note,— does he writs
\ rAodomotitadi: ! Does he lake it to be Uellenio P
Instead of rlmtt, many old booVa have rliijihmea. Bo write mnat
|- of the authora in Ancient Criliait Eaiiaya, and, at a later period. Fuller
d Henry More.
' "It must not be allowed", anys Mr. De ftuiocey, "to weigh
Igvinst the validity of a word onee fairly naturalized by use, thnt,
originally, it crtpt in upon an ahuae or a corruption. Preaoription ii
(a strong a groand qI legitimation, in a cnae of this nature, as it ia in
law." Works, Vol. H, p. 201, foot-note. Still, as, where it seems
to be at all practiuable, there ia nothing reprehensible in trying Xo re-
form a had law, so. in like eircumatanoen, there ii nothing reprehenai-
bla in trying to reform a bod word ; and one ia at a loss (o conjeeture
why. for instance, The Timn newapaper should perseTeringly persist
in striving to incutoite or perpetuate such miaapellings aa miatj/zt,
chymul, and dioceta,
' It has often been noticed, that our ancients ci
proved Bbamiiinlilt and abomiiiaHeii, by turning then
and abhominatimi. But abhojiumablc and aliioininalic
been used in Old French.
AcEOiHiag to Dr. 'Webater't editors, ahhomiuabk ■
■ived they itn-
to abkaminitblt
d muoh earlier
conifer, deerepid, deiari, enierodt, e7mnenf' epatu,
idfot, preddent,^ preheminencv,^ siiname, liiiptndiou^,'
and mbgtrttction, into ahominnble, ensign, amcert, con-
strue, decrfpit, desert, Imniorr/ioidi, imminent, hepatic,
idiot, precedent, preeminence, surname, sfupeitdom, and
moQ smon^ writcra o! the Elixa.bcthiLn pcnnd ' And it wua used in
the lime of Edwurd III. Both ab/iaminnile nnd adAominncoan occui
in l\ie Apatiigji for Leltard Hvrti-lnea : nnd Wicliffe m his New TEstii
ment, hns abhempiiifiiim. Vdnll, Donne, and a few others of their
leEpeative ages, alnnyB put, I believe, nbamynabli
The Rer. Jonathnn BonDher, renisrkmg on nbhotaiaithle, of whioli
his Gist definition is " unntanly," is "not mre that this ancient spell-
ing .. . ainj not lead US to a heller etjfmologj' he , to oS and koniB,
as implying Bomuthing that is unworttij nf a man, &nd, therefore, [u
be dslested." But is fancy to be preferred to histoni; tnith * IIow
would he have dcriiiid Pluutus's cognatv id>oimm ' And what notion
can he have thought it eonvejed to a Roman ? Ho would have hetn.
pleased with Fuller, far his abhemiaal. See The Appeal of Injurrd
InnfKtnee, &>. (1659), Part 2, p. 90.
Very frequently, alike in Old Italian, in Old French, nnd in Old
English, h was omitted from the beginning of some irords, and pre-
fixed to othoTS, in defianct< of all propriety. Nor did tliK abuse of A
slop there. In Old Frenuh we find niei/ifienlioH, and, in both Ubl
French and Old Italian, an h, in tbtir words eor^spoading lo our old
pre/iemiiicwt and prohnne.
' This strange blunder, dating from the era of Qneen Blii-abetli,
waa long very common. Even Bentham has eminently, tor immineiiHij.
' In old books I huve found enitrgn, for ininierge; inuineraik, for in-
n«merabls ; UlaiBrale, for elaioivle; ilttule, for dude ; itmnergait, fur
mien/eul; irradieats, Ibr eradicate. Lord Cliesterlteld has itiieil, for
elieit.
Sir T. N. TalEourd boldly, not from ignorance, uses iltueldalt, in-
tttai of elucidate. Fiiml Mtinariala of C/iarlei lamb, Vol. 2, p. 47.
* If we account this error typographical, there muat have been a
wide-fipread conspiracy among old printers to pseud o^apbize, and
anlhors must have been strangely oompliant to their inferiors in know-
ledge. Priiident, for preeedevt, — like tiiiineal, for imminent, — it may
rather he believed, establisbed itself through carelessness or ignoraneo,
and was kept up bocanso it was not thought worth while lo change it.
To Apportion the fault of such blunders between author and printer is
impossible; hut, for all the ofHciouinee^ oF printers, authors mii>t
hnvB been muoh more yielding, formoilj, that ^.V^^ Mfan^s-i-ia^*.,"?!.
CHAPTER V.
Hiihtraclioii, we went amiss iii nici^dling with amse,
v/ioise, ci/re, danse, extriimec, fcrrier, forceitble, forahi,
fornace, hainoim, j'uge, km, loge, prise, rost, seise, tran-
quility, ritioiis, mltiir, wrncic, and hundreds upon
hundreds of their fellows.'
tbey delegated their choice of phnuteolngj' lu oCbcrB. 'i'hiit man; uu
exprescion nhich we read in boak» ii there on the sole nuthurlly u! the
ty|iB-£etter or preBB-coirectDr is, however, to be presanied. I nijealf
tiate hod ii homely /dU-i smartened intu prrtoni ; furtunc having hein.
Icind in Hiving me from inditiduak or pertitt.
Ueferring la the time vhen the playl of ShnkeBpenre were Brat
pven to lilt) world, Dr. Jobneen ims aao^ped, that, "in no otiier dge
vu the art or printing in aaoli unakilrul hunds." On the contrary, Ii>
whonivver the credit helonged, for cuerulnest and unirormity aF spell-
ing,— certsi a options being allewcil fur, — boului printed before Ibe
ii'CeBsion of Charles L are, in general, far superior to hooks printed
daring the hnndrcd yearn that next followed.
' This form I find used by two writera within the last hundred
jMts. Sw Charles Johnson, ChryatU (ed. 1777), Vol, 3, pp. S57,
277: Godwin, A» FMijuiry. &c. (ed. 1703), p. 461.
FUa, Tor /ny, is accepted by llenry Brooke, Tin Feol of Qmlllg
(ed. 1782), \'ot. 1, p, 206; and by Uvedule I'riue, Jh Emay m ih»
' i^uturespit, &D. (1704), p. 280.
Flaff, the verb, Nnd jlea, the name of the insect, were once pro-
nonnoed exactly alike, at 1 leam From Eicliutd Hoilges, T/ia Fiainmt
, Dirtetiotnfor th True Writitig of Siigliih. &c. (164B), p. B.
' Arohdi'ucon Todd and others have shown that Milton and Derham
use thu form, wliicb is atil) a cockneyism. I hnd it in Uciiry Eiirl of
, Monmoulli, Isaac Barrow, the Duke of Buckingham, Sir William
' Temple, Joremy Collier, Stwle, Mftiideville, nnd Jip. Warburton, slao.
De Foe l>as lUipeiidvaut. And ao has Henry Brooke, in The Foot of
QuaUly (ed. 1792), Vol. 3, p. 241. His Irenienduom and trmmiditoutls
miileh it
In the early work by ^arbnrtnn, from which I find that he wrote
ttvpendiom., uecur msrmuiiia, moHifi'uuui, and lUmaai. Many an old
writer has barbariout j Ghuirill, tmuioMt. Some of these ipcllingx I
refer to by and by.
' Many apelUnga typified by ariUr-eme»l, atehievi, coUedye, cxtrenm,
virer, teropkiikia. have htnn altered for the better. But we can uiake
no boast of nniCormity. Wbile throwing out the h tram ghfim, an
M form of oarfiutu, we have rotoined it in ghiuily and ghMt; nnd.
The I in the -hie of syllable is entirely intrusive ; '
imd so it 19 in the -ele of treacle; ' as is the d in
I ^eiu/er and in the adjective tender.
Ancient, cormorant, currant, parchment, peasant, pen-
I itant, pheasant, truant, and tyrant ' simulate Latin end-
ings to which, etymological ly, they have no right.*
I tliongli we hsTC improved coHvi-^h inCo Lwrnty, wg hmn left imiigk
I vntuuched. We vrite A«ifAeH and ■'(uif, bat no loD^'r tAoar and
maak; pamphltt, but no mora (iiiJpA and prop/mm; frmty, lint nut,
II of old, fatttiwm; netipl, though ire hnve giTen ap dictipl. We
[ hnvo ajgcnti^ mainlaiu, and mUy, bat abundaua, maintmimiit, and
■nilltry. SetHK would mitch Km(; (sort'e, trevmit. Whatwo nre
I pleasod to call our orlbogritph^ ia, in shnrt, n perfect cbaoa.
Even Milton could vtitu, inatead of fa-iUa, feruler, a Bpelling in
[ vogne at least a century before hia time. Compare dirggir, from dngii.
McMHssr and paisager, m baa often been remarked, Imve undergone
iDmetbing of the aame cbange, in becoming meuengtr lud poKtiiger,
IhaC tlie vulgar have wrought, in devising faHMKgef.
Our nuparagiui waa, a long while ago, ajminyt, sp^-age, and ipniiif/iia.
I Bttrnk, in TAe Itiffn-, No. lAO, has eparagram. In Watkur'a DictioH-
aiy, wlliuh was a great siitbority with our graudfathtra and grnnd-
muthera, we are told. louubing aipai'iigm, that " the corruption ol' thia
[ word into tpiTrme^ram is so general, tbat a^aragua haa an air of
■tiffneta and pedantry."
But to remuiki of thia sort there is no limit.
' Ascbam, in The HthoUmaattr, writfla lillabf ; Ben Jonson, in .his
■/immc'; njllabe; and So writes Sir F. H. Doyle, in hia La-.turra on
I JPotllff (1869). Tba inaortion nl' thB Buperflnoua ;— wbieh no lan-
I gUB^e hut ouFB eihibitd, and wbieb doea not appear in H/Mobic, — is
1 eaailf accouat.ed it. An I wiu slipped into the -be uf tyl-le-be, to
P give the word a Diara Eiigtiah appearance j and, in course »( time, it
got tn be pronounced, and was nekome, as giving the organs uf speech
Bometbing more prebensiblc than before to take bold of. This ia onl;
I cunjoetora, of courau,
■ From Sipiatit, ultimately; as nyll/ible comes from mWa^i].
* The conjugatea of our fortfulhcra' tyrua — wliich is still the Fiench
rrn, — would bo li/rttiilal, Igimitiae, tj/rariai or tyranln/, &c. The
[ fominine li/rmmut ouctua in Kicbardsun'a novels. Tyran itself wai
t quite obaalet« in I6oo. See £dnard Terry. A Fogage to Eatt-
Iitdia, p. SB.
* And formerly we bad maryeut, Calcni, and lurbaiU, for mari/in,
laloii, and lurbeH.
II
I
Nor is any re^rd for rule or regularity to be seen
in our headleas able, bkhop, cates, cheifver, diamond,
fence, ffipsy, pert, pJasfer, mimenf, scorch, story, iansy,
valen, vanguard; ' in our decurtate cab, cent, chap,
FufitanU niia, bX one time, rerj comman. Cnntetsely, there liAs
been an attempt to intiudace into French swh fornia as infam, for
Mitbbe hai IsHcsiit, for lencH. The Rngut, Part 2, p. 112. Graf
writes of an oppidant of Eton ! ff'ori., Vol. 2, p. 383.
The old tmmt't for teiiM, probably belonge to the snme cIubb of cor-
mptiiniB. That tcfient imitRteri, in sppcaniiice, an active piuticiplr,
and not a pusairi^, was u triSe to our anceiitflrK. Or. WebstPr's editors
— copying Mr. B. H. iSmnrt, and without thantB, — dtflno tenmt, as
contraBted with tend, to bo "n t^not held hy ieveral perlnns," and
aasert that it was nnao " used by pedants who affected great Bccutacy."
OthoTs than such long used it. And ia it proved that tmait woe ever
employed as if undeiBtond to he a third perean plural } With tend
compare the hahilat of uaturalists.
Alianl and alinit, for alitti, are frequent in old hoolis. Both forma
occur in the original edition of the authorized vursion of the Bible,
and alao ia the earlier Geneva reraion.
hilimmt and erphanl, for intimatt and orphan, with other Vindred
depravatiana unnoticed by the lexicographers, must he familiar to all
Etudenta of our older literature.
' From babilis, epaceptH, acales, iTehequtr^ flrfBWM, defen/x, Egyp-
titm, apert, miplaiitrum, arrtiimeni, 0!d French eaeoreher, hiatarie,
athnmaia, avail), avant-garde.
Here, as in the note after the next, I have advisedly given Latin or
Low Latin forms, in preference to Greet
I may add tcena, aa whore we epealt of ' a girl in her ttiini.' This
word wu uaed by Henry Earl of Monmouth, oa early as 16o6.
In some parla of England, the humbler orders give the name iltrl.
formerly applied to a prison, to a union or workhouse. It is aimply
the lost syllable of Bratitt. To anch influences as oprrated here we
are indebted, no quoation, for tnost uf our verhul rednrtinna, aa drop^n,
instead of which, Udull, with many of the learned long after him,
wrote hgdfopis.
The list given in the test ia short, compared with what it might be,
repecially it we went hack to Old English. The Italian contains
hundreds upon hnndreda of similar ahbri'viutlona, sucli as finti,
ipaerils, laltotaro, Iwilriasimo, nemiee, enu'cidio, pifafia, ragiio, rmneia,
Ib, iciiro, vanffilo, vmo, wtiio, nngnuolB, from infant, ht/peciita.
NEOTERISM. 163
demi-rep, extra, mob, phiz ; ^ or in such shrivels as
aid, alms, balm, blame, coy, crown, dime, dirge, dowry,
idolatry, ink, lightning, mercy, oil, palsy, pence, priest,
ransom, remnant, surgeon, vindictive,^
electuariumy illustrtsaimus, inimicus, homicidiumy epitaphium, aranea,
Jfauriscusy eremita, obscurusy evangeliuniy hibernusy homoy lusciniola.
^ Apocopated from cabriolety centesimusy chapmany demi-reputation,
extraordinary, mobile, physiognomy.
The cent referred to is the coin. In ' ten per cent.,* &c., we have an
abbreviation of centum.
Extra has come to be a substantive, after being used to mean, from
the influence of its context, * additional', 'supernumerary*. And
lattetly we have taken to using ultray a preposition, with the same
latitude. Analogous to this ultra would be intra, to signify * internal'
and 'inmate'.
'^ Referable to adjutus, eleetnoaynay balsam, blasphemcy quietus, corona,
decimus, dirige, dotarium, idohlatria, encaustum, lightening, miseri-
cordia, oleum, paralysis, pennies, presbyter, redemptio, remanent, chirur-
geon, vindicative.
NEOTEBISTIC CANOJiS,
Dia Matteraprache ffligleicli rEinigen nnfl bereidiern iat i&a Oeaohaft
dtr heaten Ebpfe; Rciuiguug uline Borcii'lierung erwi^iat eiuh bfbera
geiatloe : denn es at niclits baqnecDBr uls von dem Inhalt atHehcu, oiul
Buf dan Ausdrack peasen.- — GoetJie.
Let HI dare to Eiuicli the language in w)iicl> wa irrita, by design ;
but let us not debauch it by inadvertence.— If'illiaia Ctidwhi.
"What between the activity of modem life and the
productiveness of modern reflection, new worda offer
themselves for trial, in peeuliar abundauce ; and it
behoves us to try them. But what are the consider-
ations by which we are to be governed, in determin-
ing to harbour, or to discard, them ?
The principal, obviously, are prompted by observa-
tion of the fate of words in the vicissitudes which
English has heretofore undergone. Of philosophical
purifications effected except by instinct, our language
has as few to show as any other. It may, however,
be safely predicted, that, in the future, unless our
successors lapse into barbarism, un philosophical de-
pravations of our language will be comparatively
rare. Even now, ignorance and chance, which have
availed so largely to load our tongue with anomalies,
are no longer, as regards it, other than an insignificant
source of mutation. From mere impulse of ex-
pedience, we shall go on, as we have always gone on,
supplying blanks, curing ambiguities, and removing
KEOTBRISnC CANONS.
excrescoiices ; but, in time to come, in distinction from
tile past, our innovations, whatever they may be,
will, in the mnin, be controlled by analogy. We
shall continue to change our language, and, very
generally, for the better ; and tbe motives for
changing it will be the same, iu character, with those
which have operated towards rendering It what it is.
Whatever is new, or whatever, though old, has an
inadequate verbal representative, demands, and at
last obtains, its appropriate expression. There are,
besides, neoteriams occasioned by alteration in the
import of words already existing. Neoterisms of
this stamp fall under four classes ; and each of these
classes would provide matter for a long disquisition.
Here, however, they must be despatched very
briefly, as must the point of the riddance of excres-
cences, just spoken of, and which presents itself for
prior attention.
A word becomes superfluous, when another word,
whatever its merit in comparison, has irretrievably
usurped its ancient rights. Of words which, to all
appearance, have been needlessly ousted from our
language, certain very old ones are among the most
interesting. Such are again^aiv for contradictmt,
buntnesi for hernin, deuUaking iav participation, dear-
Korih ioT precioiiiifieshhood for incarnation, girdledead
for waist, inicit for conscience, onlight for illuminate,
OiUUng for external, outtake for except, ouiipendtng for
departure, shrifi/ather for confemor, thremess for
trinity, uniciitingneaa for ignorance, u-anehope for (/c-
apair, mtieord for teBtimony}
I. Ab contributory to the production of neoteriams,
some expressions lay down their old senses altogether,
Qnd acquire new ones. Examples are seen in by and
bij, ' immediately afterwards ' ; carnai/e, ' burthen ' ;
conversation, ' behaviour ' ; desirous, ' desirable ' ;
futile, ' loquacious ' ; general, ' pertaining to all ' ;
ignore, ' not to know ' ; kindly, ' natural ' ; prevent,
'anticipate'; rdigioniel,' 'bigot'; mttri/, 'interest'.
II, Mult.ivocal expressions drop a sense, to convey
whicli a new expression, where required, is often con-
trived, or borrowed ; or they are dealt with by such
simple processes as those to which we owe nnlir and aii-
Uqne* In addition to other meanings, nd once signified
' actuate ' ; artificial, ' devised with skill ', ' ingeni-
oob'; cheapen, 'ask the price of ; cieility, 'civiliza-
hine, batechingUke fax projrithm, footfait for eapti'tie, geldhiuid tot
iarrtmmt, Imdmgiiki for ductUt, lotman for abialiition, umlsadit/ for
immerlal, m^fiUinglike for intatiahie, tmfuUmeUng far impcr/eetien,
viedbnah for adulterer, yearningliki for dairuiU.
Han; of their fellows dropped out of use, it maybe, in conneqaence,
partly, of tbe obsoletuig of tbnir bases; mgnnHidttaddltnim {nrfaimd'
ulim, vHdergangiHg for kuMilialiM, UHroniagHMa for dctolation, uh-
tkoliiiglike hi nntnduraiU, ivUAerwin for adversary.
For rMdier intelligibility, I bare modErnizod sucb olemcntB of (bene
I ancient words as beve living reprtaentBtives. Tbna, btnecehinglilii a
\ for backanHli, limmia ia for Ittaeif, taanehBpa is fnr KsnAape, &c, &e.
' The only aenee tbis word now boa, ' pnrtiran of a religion,' is
strangely confonnded with the older sense, by Dr. WcbsltT's editon,
and ia not reeognized at all by Dr. Johnson. See, (or it, Ilonry Mnrp.
Mi/ittr!/n/Godi<im>, p. 520; M^ilfrs of Imquil^.^y. 5SS,5i2: Bp.
Warburton, A Sukelioii, &c., p. 384.
80 our famitg has risen aboTa the dispsraging signification nl
fttmUia.
* Add bstide and beiida, tarn and iarue, (Mm™ and caution, etalin
and ffo(4(jr, tohi'w and eoarte, dlesrtt and divert, fiiur aTiA^mrrr./aul
and fowl, AiiHwwe and liMman, least and lent, mr'trir and tuMnirt, ner
Etnd art, tea and w», ilaid and ilai/ed, nlory and ilortij, then and than,
wat/e and waM,
tion ' ; collodion, ' inference ' ; commoiUfy, ' commo-
diousiieaa ' ; complexion, ' temperament ', ' idiuayn-
croay ' ; desirable, ' regrettable ' ; dreadful, ' in fear ' ;
loathsome, ' affected with nausea ', ' squeamish ',
' queasy ' ; meanli/, ' moderately ' ; respective, ' tes-
tifying respect', 'respectful'; icUhout, 'imleaa'. '
Utilize is fast antiquating imjprore, in the sense of
' turn to account '. Dialectic and suspicious would,
each, advantageously be eased of an acceptation, by
the adoption of dialectal' and suspecfahle.^
' /I'lpoWflifcuaedlo moan 'unbearable'; itiAaiiVrti/i", 'nninbahitablo',
as it still means in Frentli ; wlnalabU, 'inewmWfi'; imvaligable,
' unseiirchable '. These fnr specimenB.
" My fi™ wilB have I fouly miaspeut. " This quaint bit o£ penit*ne8
IB from QGnty (he Eighth's Primer.
' It ia used by Mr. Henry U'Hrien, in The Round TuiBera of Iitland,
pp, 121, 128,213, 2i%, (81.
* Kichardwin has this word in his Claruia Hatlaiee, Vol. 6, p. 93.
Henry Mare bu tmtiupeeiable. Mgitery of BodlincH (cd. 166D], p.
323.
Siupicablt—\n\t not in the Latin aense o{ euepieaiiiit, ' cnnjeet-
ural ',— Odours in Henry More, Myslmy of aodli«cis, pp. 121, 139.
Atp, 151, ii Hapieahiiily.
I Sutpeetfiil, in the sttbjeetiTe senae, ia used by HoweU. in Dodom'i
Orave. pp. 21, 26. S6. Probably, we are to take it from the old sub-
' atantive aaiipeci, ' suipicion '.
The word irUimphiml illnatmtea instructively bow propriety in lun-
Konge msy depend on the development of lingual resources. Beside*
' its prBient senae. it would hafe to bear the burthen of trmmpAal, t»
well, but fur tho btler word's being available. Formerly, it was,
indeed, often pat for triumphal, notwithstanding the osBerlion of Dr.
Weh«ter'» oditnts, that such uac ia " rare '". A few references for it, aa
sn eraplojed. folbjw. Sir Thomas Eljot, The Oovenmur (1531}. fol.
188 (ed. lasO) : Tht Imagt of GimenanM (16«), fol. 104. Sic Jolin
Haywncde, TAe Finu Fart of the Lift and Reigne of King Hmrie tUt
nil (ISflfl), p. 71. Philemon Holland, Ttit Cj/rapadia (lfi32), p.
70, Lilhgow. r*» TJir-jK ffiiMs™, See. (1632). p. 367. Henry Earl
alMoamoMh.Adrertimmmliifri'mTxn'iinm (IMG), pp. 34,166,250-
^ Hamaa L'Eatrange, TAt Ailianee of Diriiit Offtu (.1653'^, ^ij. a^.
Ill, So-called Bynonyms are desynonymized.'
218. G!uiniU,£Mrtj.,&o. (1676), lV.,p.43. Ratace'Wnipole.SUIiirie
Doubts (fii. 17UB), p. 36. ThtJBE refarences ni%ht he increased ten/olfl.
Dr. Johnsoa quotes passa^ which make mention ol " a trinmphal
car", and of "AtiiHmp/iaHt car". Theugh, of cnuree, thejr ure one
and the same, he defincE the first ob " used in celehratiog lictorj' " ;
tbe second, as " calebrating a victory."
Vfe have, in irhat is now regarded as the only right use of eenltmpt-
iiie, another illustration nf the point just nbore adrerted to. Thi*
word, in paaaing, Shakespeare, Do Foe, Jeremy Collier, Biehardaon,
Btcree, Gibbon, and many irriten bcudca, hare emplojed in the
sense of ' conCemptaoiia '. A reel original, amlempUbiha, has furnished
OS with eontimptihle : hut we have had tii imagine cmiitviptunmt, in
ocdur to frame eonifaipiuoHt. Lstia rerbs actiie we have large);
turned into verbs nenter, and, to some extent, nenters into actives ; and
anttrnptuBut might hare bi^en dispensed with, if we had agreed to
make eo«templibh serve a donhle purpose, after the iineligible pre-
cedent ol pmirobilii, 'penetrable' and 'penetrating', 'A coh-
tfiHpliile estimate ' would, in that case, have been both obj^liTe and
snl^'ectiTe; it would have dennted 'that which deiervM contempt '
and ' that which expreaaa contempt ". Scspicaih and lacnn, in general
eonneiinns, are objective; and yet, from poverty, we have wrenched
them, in 'a despieahle opinion', 'a tiuuin opinion', &c., into a sub-
jective aease. Sirailarly,;iQ our penury, we talk of 'a row (H™;j(i*o com-
plaint ', and also of ' a emuHtnpdve person '. So, too, miniilt qimlifles
; I have ventured,
■e,— an eipreaeion
to bo not only un-
I ' particles '.
in prints — as in Tht Fall Mall OaiHte, end elsewhere
like 'nii'nufi'on fnTcstigations ', which seems to me lo
exoeptionable, but much needed.
In lnng:uag:eB of great ductility, eqnivocals like those just referred to
are rarely found. Suoh a language is that of the ancient Hindus; and
I once moved my Pandit to inexpressible hewildorment, by propnning to
tranilftte 'Uamtd book' literally into Sanskrit. Again, though the
Bomans laid 'inio^* homo', 'iHtotnis dictum', to mean ^ inaoltnt
remark '. would have been nnintelligihle to them; and, tn our own
phraae.wehavometaphorically transferred to a thing a property which,
originaUy, appertained restrictively to the mind. For it does not
appearthati'iHo/miwaaevcr used, by us, to denote ' unusual '.'slranga',
and, from the too common tendency to consider anything new as
intrusive and objectionable, passed, as applied to external objects, tii
its presenl acceptation.
' Professor Crete's lUtpenfieafe is preferable to Coleridge's dciym/nr/-
iHiis. Bee The Juunml of Fhihlogn, Vol. 4 (1872), ik d3.
NBOTEBISTTC CANONS.
To form an idea of the extent to which our lan-
guage has been deaynonymized, one has only to
compare together our words derived, mediately, or
immediately, from the Latin, nnd those which they
nt first represented. Of these pairs there are hun-
di-eds upon hundreds ; and yet of not a single pair
are the members strictly identical in import. Take,
for esample, acid and aour, cordial nnd hearlij, crime
and guilt, dieine and godlike, jmriti/e and youthful,
luciil and bright, mi»erable and unhappy, ponderous
and tmghtg, portion and share, quantity and rfca/,
auffioienl and enough. Where, moreover, two words,
of which one is a material corruption of the other,
are taken from a foreign source, we find them very
fnr from being synonyms. Cure ' and care, engine and
gill, paralysis and pahij, penitence and penance, phan-
tasy and fancy, piety and pity, are instances in point,
IV. Univocal terms take on a plurality of sig-
nifications.
Among the various blemishes which may disfigure
a language, none, abstractedly considered, is more
unphiloaophical than multivocals ; and with these,
as almost any page of the dictionary demonstrates,
English is already crowded." As to a language whose
I Mon sUte ray reuonB (or disliking tbo terra syHonym. Its derivB-
Uvea ure, of oouree, as objcctionahle aa itself.
' lis original aenu is atill rutiined in the eiprsseion 'mrt at souli'.
' Ainong tliMC whiuh havu sprung up in recent times arc Iho verba
bfM, bund, hraektt, tit-tificatii, taal, niyiuAi-, gntiii, ouliini, ivpplmtfnt,
nMnhomt, utiind; and the sabalantivtie effiuent, bathe, eBTtal, cUmb,
tamnliMtnl, prriodwal, remmtd, mial,
Ap'-late was nnce » rarl), oi well as n aubalnntiie and udjpctivn ;
monage wiia (orworly uMii for managcmmt; impHhint, fur impiiUr,
HuaiD peoplfl were, of oW, fxmiiiHg rioli, and oxWa -wctb mlvtme
character and method of developmeTit have acquired
stability, we haye, however, little practical concern
with those principles which, if the visioiiary scheme
of coUstnicting a new language were in agitation,
would be deemed imperative. These high matters
we may well leave to the consideration of Bishop
Willdns, when, with the aid of P&Jiini and Priseian,
he shall be commissioned to elaborate a lingua Para-
disiaca. Returning to this world, of all the purts of
speech recognized by grammarians, there is scarcely
any which, as relates to some word or other, we have
not burthened with a function additional to its ori-
ginal one. Our verbs that began with being sub-
stantives or adjectives, and our substantives that
began with being adjectives or verbs, to proceed
no further, may be reckoned by thousands ; and tbey
will go on accumiiliiting. But, whether due to tro-
pology, or to whatever other cause, multivocals,'
as conducing to brevity and expressiveness, are un-
wisely condemned, or deprecated, except where they
entail ambiguity."
poor. A fair woman was o fair ; nnil tho world Bwnnned wilh rx-
hsuaganle, imptTliuenU, imUlicatea, inimnblet, punies, reti/iont, and
renilulet, now eilincl.
To gite an id«u of a multifocal is all that I hava here oBBsjed.
' These arc of Ihreo sorts. I. Polysemants, whera there ia identity
of form in th« eifmbots of [irinisrj aigniflcations and their derivatiTUB ;
as (a) kiml, ca/t, mtt, enl, hit, presents, preterites, nnd partifliplu ;
a< (i) live, aabstttntive and verb, or itt, adjeotivB, wlverb, and aub-
stantivoi and as (n) poil, ,tai/r, the aubstitntiTes. II. Uomographe,
identioal to the eye ; rb Jam, tare, dun, fair. Jilt, grate, hail, A«j(,
Uad, light, laic, nail, maUh. mean, nnjilrrj/, pale, palUl, mlt, in thdr
vurions senses. III. Eornophoncs, identical to the ear only; <" lif
nnd /lie, air and hci>; all and awl, allar and oftei', bail and hale, ban
und btar, bt and Ue.
' £iigeitt and oecurrent were once used where we use, in a concrele
KEOTEKISnC CANON'S.
The cliief criteria by which to test a new expres-
iion, with reference to its legitimacy, and, inclusively,
with reference to the likelihood of its being adopted
i'or general or special use, shall now be tentatively
I'ormulated.
First of all, a new word'onght to supply an ante-
cedent blank; or else, on'the score of exactness,
perspicuity, brevity, or euphony, it ought to be an
improvement on a word already existing. Many a
new word has been repudiated, at first sight, aa
being synonymous with one in received use, and as
sense, ciifimai and aceurrence. If, while udopting- Iho latter, but rg
abstracts, wa had retained the former, we Bhould, certainly, not hnve
I lone am'vis.
Instend of oilr good old mcinnrhe, Mr. Do Quinccy Bgain Bnd again
—Ma his Worhi, Vol. 1, p. 41 ; Vol. S, p. 227 1 Vol. 6, p. 235, &.e.
c, — BubsiitnleB memoria/io!, a word nlrcudv iBgitimately and uscfiiUjf
I pieoccnpied.
By the by. this wnni, in its cnrrflnt sense, was scouted, early in onr
I century, as an AiaericniibDi.
And just OS blameworthy as Mr. Be Quincey's mimeriaJia is his
iltgradatiim, for "gradation of a g;radfition' ; as deemupauHd means
' compound of s compound '. See Mb tFortu, Vol. 9, p. 288. In thip,
bowevar, ha bad been anticipnted bv Coleridge, Siogyaphi'i Littrm'ia
I ^'ol. a, Ch. 9.
" It took the regnlar muikeleer two or three minutes tn alter Ms
iiiiuiie weapon into a weapon with which he could encounter an
I iinamy IjBnd to hand." So writes Lord MacBuUy, in his Sif'ery,
L Chaptw 13, with illusion to the old-fashioned bnyonat, which was
• serewed inside the barrel of a musket.
A jareliD, a thing > to Ito sent ', is' a minnle weapon ; snd a inuakct,
« thinR 'which sends', ia here designated by the same nppellatiTe.
I If Lord HaraiilBj had precedent tor celling a musket mimUt, it is as
I good as nnknown ; and, besides, oup signiUcation is qaite enough for
■n adjective. A elub, or a dnim-stiok, is not pnUiitile; the air
is not I'n/latili ; and a hangman, in nbatcTer sense a peniire, is not a
imuile, minister of justice. Frnjeetili, the adjective, even if it ha»
the two meauings given it by tbo Dictionaries, is no proper model for
being, therefore, superfluous.^ But what we have
long and loosely called synonyms - are now under-
stood to be, with trifling exceptions, pseudo-syno-
nyms, by which are meant vocables approximating
in import, but not equipollent or interchangeable.
When galranism, ozone, and cMoro/orm were dis-
covered, and when loeomoihea and stereoscopes were
invented, it was necessary to have names for them.
CuU ia a term which, as we value exactness, we can
ill do without, seeing bow completely religion ' has
lost ita original signification. Cidlily, formerly the
' T^calion is apprtciahl^ diatingaiahahle from plwt, xal, till, &a. ;
and locate — long before which we had dithtatr', — is, therefore, not to
be eAidciuned tix surplnssge. In the tarae wny we may defend advtaU,
eompite, Herrati, and hundreds more of our modemiBms.
Nor is gratffalnai jusOy liable to demur-, it being no more the
BBme as gralitHif, than fartfulHcsi ia the same as can, or than fiawt-
altHM is the tattle as fraud ; also compBre /tumiiaieti and imarmm
-with huiniUty and tincerity. Tet Mr. Bkcldcy, at p. 183 of hii
Word Gvmip, instances it among " words for which eqniralents already
exiat." The four authontiea for it quoted bf Dr. Johnson and Arch-
deacon Tudd did not tbink eo. To those aathorities I mn; add Tart-
(m'» /mm, &e. (ed. Mr. J. 0. Hailiwell), p. 78 : LodowioV Carlatl,
l%t Dmrviag Farorilt {16!B), Acta 2 lind 6 : Jamca Hnywnrd, I%»
Bmtith'd Virgin (1635), p. 111: Bichard Tiekoll, The Private Omvi-
tpondcnct of Sarid Oarrick, &c.,yo\. 2, p. 302: Miss Bumey, OwiVut,
Book 10, Ch. 2 : Mr. Thackeray, Eamond (cd. 18S2), YoL 1, p. 241.
* The exaPt ttehnicality ii homaoiemanfa. Synonym, only that it
is rooted at flrroly as arleiy, we might aduentageoasly part with. In
the aKepted senaa of 'vford exactly oonsignilicative with another
•word", it stands for whjit we vetj rarely bftve lo do with. Farther,
in Graok, besides that auviwiia aeldmn means 'homsocemMilB',
(ninuvUfiDc. 'uuivncal', is, generally, opposed to ifiwi'v^DC, 'equivo-
oal'. Agsia, avvativpa are, ocdinarilT, things, not the verbal signs
of things.
> The errnneoiuneu of our Dictionaries, in their ei pin nations of
rf/iffiDH, AS used in thi< English of oar Kev Teetamvnl, woald be
smaxing, if anytiiing in any of those works coiild amaxe one. For
(wrcct information on Die aenae of reUginn, see Arohbtshop Trenoh's
S^HiM^ma of tAf Xfm Teitament.
Bubstantive of both ciril and ckilize, — the latter 'of
wliicli it waa not likely to suggest, except by help of
its context,' — was judiciously rdieved of one of its
meanings, by cmlization. Financial, internaUonal,
noticeable, and pretentious enable us to dispense with
periphrases. Ug&ome,* for iigli/, is a good sample of
words which have been dismissed from our language,
because of their offensiveness to the ear.
Secondly, a new word should obey some analogy ;
and, the less" recondite the analogy, the better.
Shakespeare uses imiippressive, for inmj>pr6mhk ;
and both he and Milton, with Brathwait " between, use
unexpresniee, for unexpremble. Dekker,' Slassinger,*
Howell," and Foote,'Tiave suburbtan ; Warton, saburb-
' There ur« muny irorda iBsltad of which, though no Eucb plea can
be urged uguiost liiem, uthers hove reuUeaelj been employed. I
name a few of the nwdli™ Bubatitutca. Sr^l. 'Willinni Taylor, ITit
Mmilhly Magasim, Yd. 67 (1821J, p. 50%. DHaitial. Id., The Aii-
ntial Sninii, VoL 4 (1806), p. 116. OUaiual. Id., ibid., Vol. 1 (1803),
p. 363. Jietaif'al, Id., iUd., Vol. 2 (1804), p. 631; Vol. 5 (IB07), p.
301. Cow/oriMBM. SoutbfiT, Worii of WUUbm Cowpa; Vol. 2, p.
lis : Mr. Hawthorne, Our'oid Sanu (Boston ed. of 13B4), p. 233.
Horsce 'WnlpoU hta ilntCh and grinilh.
Epilomulvr, lucdby Mr. U. F. Clinton and Flofessoc Samuel Lee,
thuugh reyillatly Bvolved, — aa wa haye agncopaie ftom H/ncope, and
etiUivatar Jruai tvltkale, — is not needed. And no more do we require
eauUHmlor, dedamatnr, ixaminatBr, pirfietionator, and vattmtor,
wLiicbi with nmn; kindred duplicatea, are found in boolis.
• This and ngtoineiicu are fevourite words with Biahop Lfttimer.
Btabbea h)u th« ttjll more bideona ugglcaome. The Aaatiimie afAbuiei
(1SS5), pp. 67, 226 (ed. lB3i>). Instead of ugly, va hiuJ, fur a long
while, mgtg.
^ T/ie MHgl'iih Oenlliman, p. 204. Fuller has e-xpream'iv, for 'ex-
pressible ', Oaod T&oaghU, Ulc. (ud. 1B30), p, ISl.
• A Kaig'ita Conjwiug, p. 66: Tlit Head Tearmi (IGOB), aig. C
ir.
• Tht CUy Madam, Act 3, Scene 1 ; Act 4, Sc<^ue 1.
• UedoMl't Oravi, p. 43.
' T/u Minor, Aai I.
CHAPTER VT.
ial. Steele and Addison could write rhinocerical}
Mr. T)e Quincey,' like a few authors before him,' has
)yod metamorphlse* instead of metamorphose.
' Tke Taller, No. 260. Ekiiu
. laa. jiiim.
role or rhiaonenl w
lo will dn perfecllj.
D old t
.. Tht
if tha
■ubstanti™. See Bob Jonaon, Timber, ad fia. : Edward Terry, A
Veyagt In Eail-India (1655), p. 109,
» IFor/a, Tol. 8, p. 106.
s ChettlB. SiHdktirU J>reami {1SB2), p. 43 (ed. 1841). Chriatofer
Sjiam, A Bachelors Bltuing, &c. (1644), p. 67. Henry Earl of Mon-
moath, AdveHiumtnltfrom FariiaitM (16S6), p. 212.
' Epilomkt, us an Englisli formative, is anossaikble : ond it hHi
a resl basii in epitome. Nor are tha amali/ami^ of Riubard Fmnclii
and the n-apuria ot Prof. H. H. Wilson and Mr. Isnas Taylor, though
uiineeded, formed against rule. Ae to metamarphiie, however, it ia nut
built up on any Greek word, naturalized or unnatuvHlized ; and, fur-
tliar, it preBnppoaes tbo derivativa /wTo/ioppij, which, in default of the
verb iiipfu.ia impossible. There being a verb fiap^im, ittTunop^aais
is quite regular.
Our medtianrphatt we tnok from the French tnHamorphoMr ; and
vre might have had the same verb, if we hnd hud, like tha Prenob, the
sabetantive, mitatnarplioae. Compaie phraae and paraphrnae, euhetan-
tives andTerbe : and Jamea Hayward, in The BanUh'd Virgin (133S),
pp. 226, 22S, has pareni&taed and parenihesing, based on the antutan-
tival pm-inthem. When we wanted verba eorreaponding to aphereiit,
apatheotie, emphaii; hypostatif, kypothaii, parenuient., periphraeia,
nffttopHsj and gifiitkeiiM, we made apherejiizey apotheosae, etflphasiza^.
hj/peitaiiu, hj/palhetize, parentbtaiie, periphrtuite, aynopiia, and
lyHtheaiie, bU which I have Man in aotnal use. The regular lerb of
mefisvirphoaii would be melamorphoiiu.
Like mclainorphiMe tae the very recent anaslomoit and diagmet, from
the French ifauaitomomr and dia^Hoier, The French eubatantivea are
tmaiiimoM and dingiioae ; ■aura, anasliimasi! and diaijnmi) ; and our
verbs ought to be ananlomatize and diagiieeise. Nona but prufeaBors of
leeohcraft require these verbs ; and. with them, an eitra syllable or two
is atwayi welcome, particularly if it contributes to darken counsel.
This note on what the Germans uall word-building I am tempted
to prolong a little. And first 1 will remark on two words of much
more common occurrence than any of those preriously spoken ofL
ThsBB are sarilyiie and par*lgae, the latter of which is very modem
with na. Oil tiia French suhatantires tnalyae and paialyiie were based
the Terbs anali/ur and paralyter ; and from them we made our vDrhs.
Oar analpeie and jib ro^ym would have yielded analysis aaAparatyfiie.
Dr. Noah WebBter, as many are aware, would have
had us syatemize our language, no matter at whut cost
of enigmising it ; and, if we.had heeded his bidding,
If our sutHtaotiTeB hud been aiialgK — whicli, inilsed, Henry Store usvs
in his Myalny of Iniquity, p. 276, — and pamiyat, the verba might
vreU llnre bad the same fucm.
Hence it nppeare huw unetymolngicul it is tn write a»aly:c anil
para/yn, Tlleac mie-icripta luuk na if ilescendunU of avaXi;{iii Slid
nipaKii^ui, whiuh are natliing; nnil, as 1 hare ahovn, aa little hare
aiiaigm and paralgns to do with ivaMaa and irapnXucrbi, faCures of
Avakiiiu and jropoXtuj, und, therefore, not words to begot othen,
Anailomow and dimjiuiti, spoken of ahure, remind me of axia!,
tu/i'/tlafiai', and uitgusal. Aa& tlion Ihere is dyaanabir, with tho
nvnimtiai of tbe mailiemnticiiuiti, — for t)io Ititter of which, Ur. Di;
Quincey, in 7^ Lugie of Pulitieal JStmomy [ed. 1841), pp. ii., 128,
iBudflLly aubatitnlea tho right formation, — slavishly copied from tlir
French, for dyiuiHiemeltr and HuinBHoii'il. The lime hns lon^ past fni'
inch eyncapationa and tompreBsions aa gave on arialitt, goremai; jit-
Afit, and prostor, from areitbatinta, yuhtritator, p^duffoffapg, and pt'o-^
euralar. See, for more enob shortening, pp. 162, 163, lupra.
TKhnetayy, (or -termiaobgy ', ahould also b« mentioned, as an
ignorant Gallicism which scemn to be ereeping into nse, eepecially
under the patrnoage of Suotuhmen. WilliGm Taylor ahould have
known better than to misemploy it; for so ha did, in 1799. See
Memoir, &c.,-by Mr. Eobberd, Vol. 1, p. 230.
Sippoilanomia ia tbe title of a work, by Mr. Bntcy Clarli, published
in I«29, on tbe horu'ifoBl.
It is a pity to aee theteobnicaliliesot theso-calledlibBraipnifesBions
dlatlgured by foreigiiisms. Our t'Cienttals, rinee tbey will neuterize,
would dnd their aocaunt in entertaining a few eonsolting pbilologiitB.
It is very unsafe to aeeept reuent Fronch words of ulussicnl eitmt-
tion, without eiaminin^ tbem closely. Bibtiophite ought to mean,
regularly, 'loved by hooks '. Jlibli-phiUtt, suggested by it, is just as
bad, And no better is tozophilitc, nbich has been in use since 1812,
at least. Aecham's ToxophiUa would, probably, haw been taken, by
an Bucicnt, for tomethiug totally different from what is intended by it,
In a I'ecent quarrel lietireen two French newepaper-edilora, one of
tbe cumbabinta, with design to annihilate tbe journal of his antagonist
by n singte withering epithet, denounced it as hydreprllrt. The poor
man's studies had been neglected, as regarded hydrophobe, to the
wrong hiilf of wbieb be unCurtunutely helped himself, towards devising
new compound,
our bands woiild have been restrained from sfigmiz-
iiiff and atiathnnizing^ him as a pragmic dogmkt iu
matters gramntic. On tbe monstrosities which our
penny -a-line re, once under way for plain-sailing,
engender daily, I spare to dilate. It is, bowever,
manifest enough, that the sncerdacraeg of iruatirorth-
lens benerolisis and p/iilosophohists wbo would serve as
our emancipint'i' from tbe bondage of coining words
according to rule, bave never been confined to the
brood of epbemeral scribblers, any more than to mole-
eyed philological sciolists.' But, as Fuller puts it,
' Ths Eubstanlive anathtmiehig is actually osed by Tnjlor, tbe
Watar-poet. See liig Workt (ed. 1630), Vol. 2, p. 303.
But wonis juBt as illugiiimato ean tin had, in any nuinber, foi the
saekiiig. Ignemy. Shnltespoure. Imilirabl^, Colly Ciblier, Tkt
Cartlttt Butbdnd, Aot 5. Ottimdity. Aaron Hill, Jl'orlt (ed. 17S3),
Vol. 1, p. iSS. Ilbutrieily. Miss Tiilhat, Miii Carta-'i Itllmv ta
Mill Taliot, &e., Yul. 2, p. 376 : Miss Carter, Zrtln-t Iu Un. Mon-
tagu, Vol. 2, pp. SI, 360. Squirre/ltm. Mr. Euskiti, Fori Clavigx-a,
Latter IB, p. 4. Gray has miful-vaii; Horace WBlpola, gloBmlh;
Mrs. Thrule, <u(i'M(irkf / ; Cowg<ir,godiil!i-ii!iai; Sydney Smitb,iy»f«£-
ieai ; Lady Rostt^r Stanhope, piimoiiti/. But who does not know
acores of such ntalfonuations P
AAniltiblri, we are told by Archdeacon Todd, is " the proper ortho-
graphy, instead of ndmiWibU" ! It is lamenUiblo lo diacover, tliat
leiici^rapheis are just as fallible as the rest of miuikind.
' In ImokE of recent data, I have njet with [ill tbe five abnormitiw
grouped in this senlBnoe.
> Ur. Isnae Taylor noins, ham impart, the lawless impartetimi, in
which Dr. WebBler'a editors, almost of cuuiae, find nothing to oenaure.
Tilorpboloeically considered, eitbi-t' imparliamt or impaniiian is the
right word, ImpertalKH would be paralleled by definatiaH, for dtfiiii-
tien. The bases of the correct words are, respectively, impaHit- and
defiai'--
Among the peculiar words of Mr. Isaac Taylor, I may mention the
mibatantiveg iakon. dtfiuiim, itiburtt, mtUpeak, ouUpfnd; the atljeo-
tires aeelitanlt, acctivitnut, appliuiU, eemmuniotmbit, tdiicationablt,
Kyptnentught, imrmt. irUrgrate, tterfU; and the verba active lnvnl,
(ntcrgraln, »KtapA»r, mimiiii. And these he uses in prose.
KBOrBRISTIC CAKONS.
" I liave transgressed already. Two instancca had
been sufficient ; aa Noah preserved but two of all
unclean creatures. The rest might be lost without
losse, and safely be drowned in oblivion." '
" The studiers of our older literature ", aaya Wil-
liam Taylor,' "must often have been led to observe,
that words analogically ibrmed, uncouth as theymight
at first appear, have, mostly, attained an eventual and
lasting popularity ; but that anomalous expressions,
however welcome and current for a time, cannot be
kept in circulation even by the efforts of writers the
most deaeVvedly valued." Bather, it should be said,
of euphonious vocables which conform to analogy,
and of those which transgress it, the former usually
fare better than the latter, in obtaining penuanent
favour. Perhaps a quarter as many words as there
are in Johnson's Dictionarj/, all of them duly analo-
gical fabrications, were proposed during the fifteenth,
Bfr^f fTifli, and seventeenth centuries, to perish
HKwt as soon aa they appeared ; and Taylor himself
^HR ITewfnaii, in his niacunsiaiu and Argummts (1872), p. 267,
tpeui of " amvinliml oluquEDce," meDning ' eloquence suited to n
oonrenticle '. How dons he get esmtnticalis, and not eanvitilieularii,
from eonnmlieulum f
One of the latest crentiona of pretentioui eciolum vhich I hais
noticed is diamondiferBtu, a term applied to certain tracts of cauntry
in South Africn. AdBtnantiferDta, eC^niologically correct, would nsrer
answer: but all except pednnta or affectationistg noidd be tntitlied
with diBmead-prodiKitiff. Givilkadf is a monster uldn to diaininti!-
ifmut. Oicieaitndt maybe, to many, self-eipknalory ; but one might
almuBt be pardoned for soppoaing' civili:ade to be gometbing to drink.
To the multitudo it must be oa va^^uely suggestive as Sarwkrit wu to
the genllcmau who hoped he was right in understanding it to be a
•pedes of alligator.
' Thi Eiilorii of (fe Uoly Warrt, Book 6, Ch. 10.
> The Monthly MagaiiHe, Vol. 1 1 (1801), p. SOS.
I ^
was the patriarch of a numerous cognate brood,
■which have not survived their originator.' On the
other hand, we have abundance of un analogical
mintages which cuBtom hag long sanctioned, and
which we ahull, in all likelihood, go on tolerating,
albeit, as Bob Acres says of common oaths, " nothing
but their antiquity makes them roapeetable." ' They
meet us, in fact, at every turn.
Scarcely more tolerable than words which offend
against all analogy are those to understand which
we are wantonly sent to travel beyond the limits of
our extant vocabulary.
Lord BoKngbroke uses ariilize ; ' but, in order to
Bee what it means, we have to bethink ourselves that
the Latins might, possibly, 'have made arlilis &oni
ors, as they made geniiUs from gens.
Southey, with others * who have written since the
days of the great French Revolution, makes mention
of philomphUts and 2^^iloso}}/nsin;^ and many, no
' Tide miprn, p. 151, note ''.
' Did Sheridan steal tljis piece of wit ? At all evenly, in a work
whieli ho waa, no qupstion, aoqnaintMi with, we read of "aome harsh
expressions . . . which are becomo venerable only bf their antiquity."
GmtBB, TheSpirilaat Qaixtle, Vol. 2, p. 128.
' Florio, 09 quoted by Archdeacon Todd, has artlie, which, for
' make artificial', ia indefensible.
• TAilotnphiil. Coleridge, Literary Remaiiw (1836), Vol. I, p. 298.
■Wordsworth, Caneaming t&s Se/uliBiu, &k. (180B), p. 174. Fhilo-
mphu'B. Dr. Newman, Zuta and Oaiii (ed. 184S), p. 6S; Leelmin
en tSt Baift and Nalvm nf Uaivn'til!/ ^ducalion (ed. 1862), Preface,
p. iiii.
' FhilotopAdt. Emtty. Sx., Vol. 1, pp. 148, 323 : CoUuqaiin, &t.,
Vul. 2. p. 271. PkihKophiiim. Ema^i, &c.. Vol. 1, p, IBS. FMloii^
phittieal. Hid., Vol. 1, p. 80: Lift of H'etkij (ed. 1864), Vol. 2, p. 191.
Tha two Si's! wordi were Anglicized from piihnphitte and phiiata-
I
I
doubt, have guessed tvmiaa what is thereby intended.'
On the whole, it would even be better to speak oi'
pkilmophasters and pkiloaophastry.
" The shadowy exhibition of a regal bancjiiet in the
desert draws out and stimulates the sense of its utter
phiaint. The Fi'eiiali liave alvaya applied tlicm cualcmptuoualy ; and
BO their Eaglisli rL'preaenlatiyes Imve alwaja been appliwl.
' The Greek 'AttuuZui luid. the Latin patriam belong to a cl]iis of
vorda in nhiuh nolhing diBpara^ag is implied by their endings ; and
tltfl ethioal neutrality of our fAHoiophize v quite tegiilur. The French
equivulont of our verb is pMletapher.
In Greek, aa sdiftaita and ao^arqc nere denied from uo^lCoi, tlis
cnnnlerpart nf a votdiikt pAiloiopAiici' should precede the fluuuterparta
of words like p/iihsaphuini aai philoiophMe. Whiohaver of their
worda llie French deiised first, they had no vurrant from analogy, in
giying- them, as they gave tbem, invidiDus aigniiicBtioaa ; for auch they
bear, as does nMogiume, domparod with ncuhgie. Unly a 'sliatii
pbiliuapber ', & philmophiite, — or patron of 'fulse philosophy', phih-
taphitmr, — is mid to piilmophiur.
Dt. Webater, bis editors, and Dr. Worcester, all err in taktn;
pkikaophitnt from ^'Aoc and vii^isfia : these peraons not being awaro
that their compoaition is imposaiblc. To arriTe at fiKoao^ariui, a de-
rivatire, ve ahould have to aasojne ^iXoaa^ilw ; and the Greeks had
no anch verb. Further, us I have aaid already, we got our phthni-
phiim Irom piilotopkUiiu, whicli does not owu its detractive accepta-
tion tu its seeDiing- cuoneiioa with f^himm. liiheMiriea piiiloKphimu,
phiimephUte, and philamphim; to a Frenchman, the laet, in contrast
to \m pUtoiioplKr, ia a key to the twa flrat.
, The lesicDgraphecs juat nuined, atarting with an nnscholaatic etj-
melogy, di'fino phdoiophinn by "love of fallacioua argiiinenta",
" aophiatry ", &<:. Southey and other well-infurmud wTittra cortainly
do not employ the term in that sonae. However, since none bnt a
French scholar will b« likely to use it as the French use it, and since,
etymologically, it baa nothing to do with mpMun, by reminding of
which it ia likely to mislead, it iajustthc sortof word to be avotdedal-
togvther. Piiloiaphiim, irwo needed it, ought, with reference taphi-
luKipklse, — which is as dilferent from pAihcnphiicr as poet ia from
pactaslar, — to be allied to phitomphg and pMktBphtme. And so piilo-
tnphitt would signify ' philosopher ' ; aa it does with Putl«nhain, in
Th* Arte of Efglitk Fa»tie,f.6. Compare (iiVojopAi»(, for 'jnggler',
inalMi) of which, Oaule might optinnally havemudiHod jcn^dno^oc into
'w. Site Ylvi-fnti'Tia, sig. I 4 r.
180 CHAPTER VI.
solitude and remotion from men'and cities." So dis-
courses Mr. De Quincey/ who, nevertheless, de-
nounces Bentley's putid and negoce as " lawless
pedantries", and as "filth".* Not only must re-
motion suggest, to the ordinary reader, * repeated
motion', or else 'backward motion', but, besides
being neither actual English nor, it is to be hoped,
potential, for ' removedness ' or * sequestration '/ it
is not even, in that sense, a true Latinism.*
Miss Cobbe writes of "having constated the pe-
culiar doctrines of Christ.^'* The learned lady
1 Works J Vol. 6, p. 321. The word remotion occurs also in VoL 3,
p. 183 ; and in Vol. 8, p. 62.
2 Works, Vol. 6, p. 176. It is absurd thus to revile words without
reference to their age. As to putidy it found acceptance with Barrow,
Works, VoL 1, pp. 191, 208 ; and with Cowley, The Davideis (ed.
1687), p. 28, where we read of " the putid officiousness of some gpram-
roarians." And Mr. De Quincey might easily have ascertained that
the word is used by Henry More and Bp. Jeremy Taylor.
' The evidence of the Dictionaries does not affect this position.
And their evidence I can supplement.
Mabbe writes ; " fearing lest they might cause some remotion or
alteration in her body." The Rogue (ed. 1623), Part 1, p. 19.
" In the second [Essay], he aggravates the sense of sorrow, the"
misery of this life, in respect of sin, the infelicity of it in her remotion
from Sion." Kichard Brathwait, Essays upon the Five Seftses (1626),
p. V. (in Archaiea, Vol. 2).
<' Salvation .... doth, in the Hebrew language, properly signifie a
deliverance from, or remotion of, all sorts of inconvenience." Barrow,
Works, Vol. 1, p. 165. In this instance, remotion is remotio.
* Mr. De Quincey — see his Works, Vol. 9, p. 271, foot-note, — uses
symhology. Ideology is bad enough ; but this is worse. Symbololofy
would be correct. Symhologie I have somewhere met with in French
or German. The privilege of introducing, or countenancing, words of
the stamp of symbology, should be restricted to professionals. Vide
supra, p. 174, note *.
> Studies New and Old, p. 9. Spenser in vain experimented with
renversedy for * turned upside down ' ; and Jeremy Collier would have
Anglicized a modification of renverser, for ' overthrow '.
NEOTERISTIC CANONS. 181
means * ascertained ' ; but her Gallic constate, if con-
strued at all, is sure to be construed, by any but a
French scholar, into * state with '.
In a passage quoted by Mr. Blackley,^ we find
Philistinism qualified as deducated, a term which the
reverend gentleman is pleased to hold up for admir-
ation. The word, we are considerately informed,
*' But what do you think of those who appear in defence of immoral-
ity, endeavour to blast the credit of vertue, and t'enverae the notions of
good and evil?" Essays upon Several Moral Subjects (ed. 1705),
Part 3, pp. 50, 51. Also see p. 252 of the same Part, and Part 2,
p. 11.
And compare Donne's reenverse, ** And by such fiction, that Eng-
lish priest Bridgewater, which cals himselfe Aquipontanus, overturn-
ing and re-enversing his name with his conscience, may be beleeved,
when he saies," &c. Fseudo-martyr (1610), p. 274.
If rencounter never fairly became English, there was still less hope
for renverse.
Not much to their credit, English doctors and lawyers have tried to
naturalize the French viahle^ * likely to live ', from vie, a corruption of
vita. Who, at first sight, would not suppose that viable must be con-
nected with via? Vivable would have been much better; or, if it
were not dark enough, there is vitable, which does not lack the support
of analogy. With the factitious vivabilis and vitabilis compare stabilis
and veniabilis. The genuine Latin vitabilis, from vitOf we have not
thought fit to adopt.
"No produce ever maintains a consistent rate of produetihility'^
Mr. John Euskin, Unto This Last, p. 53, foot-note.
Why the politicaster's produetibility ? Frodueible does not mean
f productive ' ; and, therefore, there is no call for the assumed adjective
produetible ; though productibilis would be as regular as divisibilis.
But the objection which I woidd here emphasize is, the liability of
produetible to be deemed an English formative, — ^like merchantable,
seasonable, serviceable, — to signify * suited for a product *, or the like.
And just as bad is Mr. J. S. Mill's irreduetibility. " But M. Comte's
puerile predilection for prime numbers almost passes belief. His
reason is, that they are the type of irreduetibility : each of them is a.
kind of ultimate arithmetical fact." Auguste Comte and Fositivism,
p. 196.
» Jrord Gossip, p. 180.
182 CHAVTEB VI.
signifies " miatlirection of education." ' To the pro-
poser of dciiucatecl we owe, by the way, the felonious
iinsom, by which jargon he would designate words
formed onomatoposically. The initiated are aware
that this cryptograph is mangled Latin ; but, to the
outer world, it must seem to be, if not Patagonian,
cabbalistic, and own brother to ahmcadabra, abra-
cii/rin, and shemhamjihora»h.
And here it is obvious to remark, that a new word,
if its relationship, as regards etymology and mean-
ing, to one already free of the language, is at once
perceptible, generally becomes English much faster
than it would become so without those advantages.'
Compare, with respect to the rapidity and degree
of their naturalization, aualogne, custodian, enechpe,
grade, mdmtyial, marine, with avuncular, cuHbre,
campestrian, circenmn, .condliar, connoiaaeur, dilet-
tante, dincipular, domical, improvise, lacustrine, leniicu-
lar, mirage,' profile, promenade, reconnoitre, riparian,
mute, spectacular, trait.*
' It would not be more than half as bod lo coin reilil, tn menn
' give out again,' ' edit OTer.'
' Ona IB not sarprieed that tiipertherg and aurqiiKlry never became
firmlf rooted in tba language.
' Mr. J, Q, Whittier Iiub, in his Snovi-iound ;
" The mirage loomed noross her woj."
Here the BcanEion reqnirea thitt we pronounru the nord as n (nMhec.
It is EotioeaHfl, that Americans are more prone than Englishmen to
oonfer od foreign worde the full lights of natnrnliEation at oDce, ruiher
Ihun by degrees.
* There is much to commend in the spirit of Southoy'a vipva, at to
taking tfrms from abroad, und as to lh« way wc nhoiild uac tbenj.nhen
we linre taken them,
" I have no objootion to Anglioino a word from any Itrnguos*! when
we bare no equivalent for it, and wonld, therefore, write munagtrg
and iiairetyj but I iave n very great _obitet\oB te Me writton Eotjlieli
NBOTEBlsnc 0AS0K8.
In the third place, a new word should be euphoni-
ous. And the inbred feeling of us who ubo English is,
from tit Leltert d/
interlardEd with (oraigTi phrnaes." SelcHiai
Jiniert Southi^, Vol. 3, p. 333.
Cgnsonantlj to liu prim^iplee, Saatho]' wrote millioaiit, insteiul of
tHi'Kiwuii™, out misspeiling of the Fronch milliotmaire. The Uuarta-ly
SaiUui, Tol. tS (1831), ]j. 429. How he must have aaoseated Cole-
ridge's pofew^alt.'
Landor makes Home Tooke >ay : " If we mnat vse such words bi
rcrorie, wbj not oblige tlivm to confiirm with their prcdeceesorE,
travetly uud gaieii/, which should have the y inataad of the i / When
we, following CoH'luf, write piudarigug, we are kughed at ; but no-
hodj laughs at pUtnrcfqiie nnd antique, which are egonllf reducible to
onler." It'oria, Vol. 1, p. IM.
The latter BentuDce of this paasaga it based on no priociplu what-
Glanvill, in hia Seeptit Scieafifiea, p. lAfi, has meyelnpady. Cole-
ridge and Mr. Du Qiiincej' write dyfju^uy.
Akin M the ambition which actuates inch Epelliitgs is that which
would lessen our depondenco, as to worda, on foreign laiigusgea. Fut>
tenhlni, at p. 191, lulls ns that " Master Secretary Wilson ■' proposed
v>it-eraft, for logit. yentiigt.n^'aUx fooliih-Jtre, \a»\«BAi>\ ignit fatma.
William Taylor auggesCed tpaeh-Uirt, as a substitute for phibilagy.
Tilt Mantkli/ Mayaaine, Vol. 13 (1802), p. 13. Leia happy is hil
finguaoiiiui, to serre the purpose of linsuiHie, The Mmithlg Eevieic,
Vol. 73 (18H), p, 499. And leas happy still is bis body-ipirit, for
those who object to eapi-it de corpt. Ibid., Vol. 13 {1794), p. 30.
The following passage is by Thomas Edwards, author of The Caoom
of Oi-UkUm, a work which was long, and not undeservedly, popular.
" I am not for borrowing of the French any words which we can
fiiirlyderiTe from the Latin, or from our own stock; fur which reason,
I write honor, mperim; &c.,— without taking any notice of the French
termination -euc,— and goueriier, aa we form de/tnder." Cinrciiponi-
mei of Samml ElcAnrdiatii, VoL 3, p. 63.
Edwnrda is speaking of the forms of our words ; and be thus inti-
roetm rules which, from Gnt to last, have been largely, but most
Mpriciously, applied ; the first, to the effect of assimilating the Lotin-
iitio vocublcs of our language to their ancient originals, and the second,
to tha elfect of methodizing our spelling BRer English analogies.
At present, the genealogy of our words, as dcdacil>le from thmr sp-
penranec, only realizes extreme confusion ; and we shuU do wisely,
if. instead of discontinuing the reformation which has been carried m
far, we go on and complete it. It i) not, ftu\)a^J\B 'Cnu.\. -«b j\i^ vm
184 CHAPTER VI.
that a word should not be very long,^ any more than
very harsh.' Hence our shortenings, in utterance, of
Michilimackinac and Winnipiseogee, and the British
contractions of Auchinleck, Beauchamp, Cavendish,
Cholmondeley, Cirencester, Colquhoun, Lereson, Mqjori-
hanks, and Pontefract,^ Much as we might require an
f^et back to superiour, or to governour. When the latter was giTen up,
its successor should have been ffovemei\ as we substituted defender for
defendour ; gowem and defend being our yerbs. So Dr. Johnson writes
visiter, in the place of the old viettour,
Everybodj writes effigg, etdogy^ lancet, parley, volley ; and why
should we consent to write programme and toilette ?
CoUaborateur is an excellent word, which neither ' co^labourer ' nor
' fellow-workman ' defines adequately. Many haye felt the need of
it ; but the right form, for us, is collaborator.
Liter ator, modified from litterateur ^ is much nearer being Anglicized.
This word, but not in the sense attached to it by Burke, we haye long-
desiderated ; and the countenance it has received from Southey, Lander,
Lockhart, Mr. De Quincey, and Mr. Carlyle, has already availed ta
take off something of its strangeness of aspect. The singular of
literati has had but few favourers ; the substantive literate is pre-
occupied ; and literatOy used by Hughes, in The Spectator, No. 53, and
by Cowper, — see his Workt, Vol. 6, p. 266, — never had the least
prospect of being adopted. Considering;^ how little we tie onrselves to
the limits imposed on words by classical usage, — as witness our civil,
consul^ vcnA. pagan, — ^it is nothing if we make our literatore oommensur-
ate with the Koman literati,
^ Facilitate we have no scruples about ; but diffieilitate has knocked
for admittance, without being listened to. Nor, for their length, can we
readily endure Soutbey's revivals, jM)««t&«7tto/« and impoasibilitate. See
The Qmrterly Review, Vol. 39 (1829), p. 134 ; and Selections fi-om the
Letter Sy &c., Vol. 4, p. 16S. Coleridge has itnpossibilification,
3 Notions of euphony are not the same all the world over. I once
asked a Pandit, a professor of poetry, what he considered to be the
most melodious word in Sanskrit. His reply was slakshnm. And he
was not jesting.
* The reduction of JSrighthelmstone to Brighton is attributed to
George IV. My English home, Marlesfo)'d, is vulgarly called Malsa ;
and, among the neighbouring parishes, Bergholt, Brandeston, Chars-
field, Hacheston, Sudbome, and Thrandeston are known, by the com*
men people, as Batfle, Bransion, Chasfle, Eayaon, Subbon, and Trau-*
ton.
KBOTEBISTIC CAN0M8.
adjective of appendix, aa appcndical, there would
have been ao chance for Bentham's appendixiovs,^ or
for William Taylor's append ica/ori/,^ even if they had
been formed agreeably to analogy. Doubtless, it
was, in many cases, chiefly owing to their cnmbroua-
ness, that so many of our early English compounds
and derivatives were superseded by substitutes from
the Latin. Numerous are the words like amatormw,
arbiirariowi, curta!,^ magistral icnl,* obscenous, opacous,
' See Bcnlham'8 Worlci, Vol, 8, p. 236. Having to do with an
QncOTnipted Latin vord, Btuttiam should have etarttd with appendic-,
(or his biiaa, Appimdieioui woald, in fonn, reaoinbie >in(i<u'ow*, — i(
Jtiiieiaiu nm from judex, instead of Judicium ; — hut ita -«iu, as muEt
gencrallf anBwitria<' la -etua, would still ha out of place. The Bn&-
logj- of mriane, fiom varix, would yield apptiidicoa, which, too,
n^presents -(am. The force of -anus, -oun, is often miBunderBtood. Mr.
Isaiu Tnjlor, not sittiBfled with the existing acdivawi, uses aeeliviCmu,
which, since it is not intundod to nivau 'uhouuding in acclivities',
is worse than a mere luperflility.
■ The Annual SiBiea, Vol. fi (ISDS), p. 231. Judiculoriui &ie*lial
come directly ftom j'ltdtx ; und appaiidiealtiiy would dumand some word
intermediate to itself and appindix, as BppmMealor.
* I mean the adjective ; und tbi« I would refer, differently from Dr.
Wehster's editors, to eurtalii, a factitious elongation of tttrtut. Fur-
ther, bam our old ailjirctiie, perhaps, originated the verh now written
etirtail. To eiplnin tiiHail hy a concretion of cart laiUer seems to
me worse than (or-feiohed. For when was curt tailUr ever used
tor laitUr aiurt f Our old Terb was curtail. Sue Thomas Caapion
(1S02), In Aneiml Critinal Eciai/i, &a.. Vol. 2, p. 166: Thonies
Jamss, A TrtatiK of the CorruptieH of Scripture, &c. (1612), Tart 2,
p. 69 : HeyUn, Eeclaia Vitdiiala <lfi57), Part I, p. 132.
The adjectire eurCal is older than Milton. " In fmit-timo, we bad
lame soure ebsrries, three sowre plummea, one or two little apri-
cockB, halfe a pound of flgges, and now and then a wbole pound,
according to the number of those that sate at tshje, but in that
minced and eurtall manner, that there was none of tts so nimhle-
flnji^r'd that wee could oomo to Tyeit the second time." Mabbe, T/ia
Sogue (ed, 1B23), Prat 2, p. 274.
In CHrtal-axe, we hare a mere corruption of eoutelai, euilnu.
* For Ihis word, see Burthogge, Caata Oti {\^\h\,\.\h'>>. K.v&\v
CHAPTEa VI.
ordioiloxnl, pi-oh'j-ioiis, proporiioiiahh',^ and ivbustioiis,
which we have exohungad for fewer syllables. Who,
if he can help it, will ubb canlinalUial, castremian,
or Htaneutieal ? Or who will now write artHioeratical,
charactenslical, ermtical ? Comolate, emcocate, deno-
iate, deslinnie,* deicrm'mate, exritafe, exholaie, eruliafe,
impedite,^ modificale, occaswru/fe, ruinale, and apeclficaie
have gone the way of cariUation, contmtation, design-
ment, dk'juisvment, project-men/, and rlaitment. Circutn'
fomneoun beggars have disnppearod along with ster-
coraceous breezes, auheenlaneom eggs, and things
antccedaneoua and siipervaeaneom. The old-fashioned
trUicnl are now only tr-ite ; ivlitidaries have given
place to vohmleers ; atrabihtrioiis peniteniiaries are, in
our time, less miserable, by four syllables, than
they used to be ; dcgiogrnphera, hutoriographei-i, and
i(;fere>idaries have shrunk into ekgisfs, historians, and
referees ; and raktndinariam * are fast succumbing
before invalids} No doubt, too, we should have had,
is uwd bj Godwin, in An Enquirff, £d. (ed. 1793), p. 766. Hr.
Judntll qmites Mrs. MauBulay fur it.
' Mr, Do Quincoy is, for a modern, rather peculiar, in Me prefer-
ence !ar pnporlioHaliU to fiiiipoi'li'mnl,
* Detore itfinre BOoms to have got bio vngtie, I find injury its«d aa a
vgrb, Ljrlj, EHpItHBi (1676-80), p. ICO (ed. 1868). So the verb
dtiliny apparently preceded OaUnt. ChetlU, Kitidkarli Dftomt
(tfi92). p. 68 (ed, 18*1) ; Gsalo, nvi'-fiavrJa, p. 348. Compare ;>Ai-
hinp\ft Iho verb, ns prcoediit); phibnopbai. Dunne, Pi»ndB-iaartyr
(IBID], p. 313; BiMKanatat, p. 46. Barron trial phiUfsphal*.
Wiiria, Vol. 1, p. 173. And sn did Crquhart and others.
' Onute, nrc-pavricr. pp. 113, 142.
' It is odd that pafafmio,— whence faJ^fMrfiiinri'iu,— at flrst the ana-
l(f lie of our noiT inililferont Acallk, should have come, even in Cioero'i
time, tu menu ' illness '.
' Wa have kept ieipifalitfi, — though its bate hajt disnppcuvd, — in
preference to eoiiiing the oumhrolu lutpiUiiUtg. For the a^JMtiio
NEOTEKianc CMSOSS.
as stable contributions to our vocabulary, all,^ cii,
p/eiiipo, pos, and vet, if there had been as popular a
demand ibr the apocopation of altitiules, citizen, ptem-
polentiarij, posUiee, and veicrt'iiarmi,^ as there waa ■
for docking cabriolet, incognito, and mobile, and fgr
beheading eautei-tiiig and Ojjorto."
Moreover, our aversion to dissonance has often
proved to be stronger than our care for analogy.*
/•Mpilal, tee Philemon noUand, Cynip^dia (1832), p. 121; Fuller,
7-A. Ajipcal, Sea. (1G59), Pan 2, p. 96.
' In tbe next chuptei I xpeaL of this nbliroiiution.
• The Homntia thcmaelTes would not abide what was, probubly, the
Tull r<>rm, vehcteriiiariia. Zalrina, in tike munnGT, v\U rDduuud fiom
lasatriHa.
> V/^ixnix aterling im& port, — the win o.
' A striking illuitmCion of Ibu is seen where, in order to obtaia
certain Jeniinine eubstaniiTes fiom masuulines, we add a termination,
instead of sohsliltiting one. Hmttts, jioetm, tlitphrilesf ,&':., iii: havij
uo feeling agunet, — and Chupman, Milton, and Dnrdvn had none
Ngainit ha-ocii; FuHbti nonv a/g>a.ait, patrtarehca ; aiid nichardaon,
none against rivaUtt, — their mnaculino hoses having immuvabla
l«rnunatianB. Again, u la arehanaa, arehna would hoie outraged
DDphony; or else we should havv had it; us we have "''iiVrcHi/uuntf-
rru,ligriu; and I hnvecollectedinslanoDBo(iutfar«M,rfiinorivH, ojt/m-'
m, Tiforituma, rmmj/iTtD, and lattrperui ,- with attrreu, ehanlriu,
min/Brlren, eormnatiiirei; fW^roiderftt, kdrbearea, imtiUivm, rninii-
trtti, p/iiloKphtit, porteeti, leriuentmi, virilrMl, &c. &c, Au modified
from words in -or, I have met with eanduatrtu, am^iurtM, dirtelrm,
(loilrtAM, ofainu, pnetptrm, ipielatrfut, to. jco. But it is vary differ-
ent, when wo annox -«i to -or'. Talarn; like tutifu, lius been in
print ; but neitliGr word has taken root. To tltduna and IrailarHt,
which (fceucbere and there, we generally prefer tleetrai and Iraitrm;
and wu nevei say aetorta, jjut actren. Thomas Nasb has ivctarui;
but Ben Jonson. nttriu ; Miss Carter and Mr. Charles Eingslvy, piv-
/miortii. 3fuj/iinat and priomi there is nn Idp fur. Aiillurn*
remains. A svpamte substantive bearing its ngnillcatioa stems to he
now indispensable: though we ore itill intisfied with remnla tpontan.
And here, as in muyureii and priona, we must put up with an nau-
miily, onless we auuord nur favnui to aMl>r™ii. This harsh ei-
prPHion— with which contrast Btatliwait's inalriieliii, in T/if EiistitK
Gattttman, kc.,^. 43, — is used by James Baywa^t^uiTlK BunisK^
188 CHAPTER VI.
Our adverbs matching adjectives in -b!e end in -bii/,
— as ab/i/i not aUdij, — to fonn wliich we compressed
-hkh/ into one syllable. Holilij, jollihj, loicUly, sillily,
and the like, we barely endure ; we have given up
idkli/ ; ^ and we will have nothing to do with the
equally regular dailily, hourUty, mouthtily, JceekHly,
yearlihj, and a great number of similar formations.
In preference to using them, we make the adverbs
the same as the adjectives." Fidurely, tally, and
smally, once common, we revolt at,' substituting
periphrases therefor ; and contrarily has almost been
driven outbyco/i/n/riwwe. Longadverbs of the compar-
ative and superlative degrees, asjiercelier and wiseliest,
once very frequent both in prose and in verse, have
gone out of vogue, — chiefly because some of them
Virgin (1635), p. 1S7; and Dr. Johnson quotes Fanshawe for it.
Authorets, I acarvelf need renlHrk, U no novelt}'.
We are told, by Fultsr, ot Qaeen EliEaheth ; " She could not woU
digest tile affeoted OTer-elcgimcy of euch as prayed for ber by tbe
titla of 'De/mdreu of tbe Failb', and not Ibe • Defender ' ." Tht
Holy Slate, &e., p. 296.
What, then, oould Queen^Bess bate thought of the pioua topo-
graphor, John Norden, who taught bis generation tn pray for ber as
"our aoTeraigne Lady and Oovernis" ! See A Penaive Mant Prat-'
tiie (1684), fol, 6 r.
' It was of frequent oocnrrence doirn to 16SU, and, no doabC, later,
Sir Tboraaa Elyot bos iieUn.
Lamaitahlitly is used by John Korden, in A Sinful! Maiu Salat*
(ed. 19S5], foL 13 v.
' The once common adiepbs/fltAeriTy./i^'fnrf/i/, godly, liveli/, malher-
ij/, onlerly, &c., formally identical with adjectiree, have gone out of
nee; Bj>i ne aov laj iH a fatAerli/ way, &a,
Bsadloiigly baa the authority of Donne, Mabbe, &c. Latimer,
Puttenham, and many others have abmeli). With these adverbs base
dieappeared anytrli/, hungeriy, tmtipeetly, ttithly, &c. &o.
■ Yet we do not object to mlety. Far faulty, tiiitilcly, and uiAoily,
ire otten find, in old books, fanly. tubing, and wlutly. And they bna
n>/fi. See, far otlior such oontractioaai nolB ' ia Uie neit paje.
I
Ibnd the car,— to such a degree as now to be ac-
counted, with an exception or two,^ if not afl'ected,
poetic licences ; and the congeners of hksseder, lying-
est,* and belovedest^ which were none too harsh for
our forefathers,* are now all but universally banished.
Nor do we stop here. The idea conveyed by dijfi-
cidthj is one which we constantly have occasion to
express; and yet this word, though it must, for
centuries, have occurred to almost every one that
has written or spoken English, and though it must
have been printed hundreds of times, can hardly ho
said to belong to our language.' Its fortunes would
' Earliir nnd tariicst nro among tlic most familini.
' ShakeBpaare has thia word. Dekkec has v.tather-biaUi'ut. See
Enighli Can/uHng (1S07), p. 23 (cd. 1842).
1 Words of tbis stamp are very generally aliimnBd ty onr contera-
iTDrieB. An eireption is Been in tliat pbcnomenou of civilizaCian and
lumiuiity, Hr. Tbumos Corlyle.
And yet Ihey rebelled at profisieneii and pnmenat, instead of
cli we fiod, in many a bool: uf the sixteenth and BeTenteeatli ceat-
contempl of etymological conaiderBliona, pro/anat and ptonmi.
for JlHCHtu, once was eitremGly commnn ; and I have found
rfineti and diriiuiw. Ben Jonson has, in vene, emnplcga for
Bennjiumt aai FletiAei, paral/eU'i foi pamlletlim ; and
'fatneiM, fur JamnMui, was allowed for metre. InBtunces, in old
hwita, of MMffi'nj courtiora, earring favour, lnrring one's plcBsure, and
uinriii0 Jews, sj-a not infreqaent. Mntining was not entirely abol-
ished It hundred years ago.
' Here follow a few references for diffieiilllj/. Raphe liobynson,
kTrnnslation of Urapia (ISSl), p. 99 (ed. ISeS]. John Eaton, Tin
iMonejf-cotnie of Irti Juitifieaiion, ka. (1642), To the Eoader. T/ie
yifatnrall and EipirimenlaU Siilary of Windt, &e. (16fi3), pp. 212,
■ 851. Hamon L'Eatrange, Tin Seign nf King Charlei («d. 1656), pp. t,
333. Glsnrill, SnpiU Seimtifiea (1668), pp. 6, 80 : Stii^ Tuum tfau
Sil{l66i}, pp. IS, 27, 28, &fl.: Siatgt, &c. (1676), II.,p. 46. Barrow,
HV*» (ed. 1683-09), Vol. 1, p. 7. Ow-ay, T^ ChtaCt of Smpin
(1677), AM 2, ScBBB 1. Jeromj Collier, J&»oyi vpeti Siveral Xu-al
SMijVcto, Part 1 (ed. 1703). p. 204; Part 2 (ed. 1702), pp. 136, 166;
Part 3 (ed. 1705). p, lil ; Part 4 (ed. 172fi), p. 177. Bentk^, Watkx,
have been very different, had it been as smooth to
the tongue as the Italian difficilmeiUe, or the French
difficilement,' or our old uneaik.
Vol 2, p, 31. Addison, Tha Spectator, No. 171. Fielding, TAc Life
ami Sfath of Tom Thmab tht Gi'iat, Pretaoo, Dr. Johnson, Li/f of
thi Sins of Fnaiia : Th« Fabe Alarm (1770) : liller io Mr,.
Thmti, Sept. 30, 1773. Biahop Dnrd, Moral and Folitieal Bialegiut
{fid. 1760), p. 18B. Cowper, The ChnuBiiicur, No. 138. Bouthey,
Tke Annual Review, Tol. S (180S), p. 622 : Colloguia, £c. (ed. 1831),
VoL 2, pp. 117, 311: TAt Doctor {monotome ed.), p. fi94. And
Goldsmith hiw tlie word somuwhere in his Animated Nature.
Slime of tDj' readers mnj wonder irhy I than heap up rererencei.
Well, sometiine* it is fur nna reason, and sometinies it n for another.
TuVb the yery word juet dosputched. Not long ago, on my spealiinK
nf it, in conversatbli with a very learned echoUr, in much the same
toi-ms that I have Employed in the text, my collocutor very podlively
queried it* ever having got into print. Tct very likelj' he had aeon it
dozens of times.
Memory is a poor ttiinR, at hest; and alas fnr the man that puts
hii tmst in it ! In my Eecfiil ErempliJIcBtioiii of F^iUf Fhilalmjy, I
have used the eipresiion to happen oh something. One of my English
Clitics, on seeing this, pounced upon me with indignation, and lec-
tured me severely for prasoming to write about English, while still
capable of so diegusting an Americanism. My friends in the United
States will know whether the expression be used there ; 1, for my port,
do not know, having quite forgotten. But whet I do know ii, that I
hear it used in East Anglia, by the people about me, every day; and
I have chawjed on it in a good variety of boola of difforent ages. Of
these I name a few, with their aathors. Sir Thomas More, Apolagy
(1B33), (oL 6. Harvey, Jfe™'j Supirtrogation, p. 186. Henry Potter,
The Two Angry Women, Ac, p. 91. Camden, Semuini (ed. 1671), p.
41. Heywood, An Apalofffffor Aetort (1613), io The Somira Traett
(2lld ed.), Vol. 3, p. 592. Brathwait, The Lira of All the Boman
Snpurors, p- 1S4. Henry Earl of Monmouth, Somiilug and Tarquin
(1637), p. 289, The Comical Miatiir^ of Francion (1666), Book *, p.
20. Heylin, A Full Jtelaliou, &o. (1656), p. 266. Milton, F}-oii
WiirU (Bohn's ed.), Vol. fi, p. ISO. Translation of U CurdinaUemo,
Sx. (1970), p. 267. Aloiander Pope, The GNnnliaii. No. 4. De Pop,
OiplaiTi SiHgletw (ed. 1840), p. 3^7, Bonlhey, The Doeter (1-vol.
ed.), p, 021, Seppm into. Dryden, An Eveains'i Lore, Ep. Dcd.
Mm. Ceutlivre, The Si^'jbody, Acl I, Scene 1. JiimramuK, katS.
• The adjective pnviial, as denoting contrast with totality, \uim long
had commcm yogMi ; but the ocearrence of its adcerb has greatly in-
I
Many are the words which, though nine persona
out of every ten use them, are positive blemishea to
crensed within the lust Imndrod jears. Paiiialty, for 'not totnllj-',
' only in port', was, in some eonneiiionB, goud English to 8ir Tbomaa
Brovne ; and, from tlie eduonted aanse of euphony wbicli distinguiihea
modern ears, it has been well-nigh completely reiucdtEted. Tlien:
arc eases in which parity, if enbutiluted for it, would nlfect many
perBons of nice perwptions much after the manner of a wrong note in
music. Let the rBader Mat ths tenahlenesa of this nodon by the an-
" Bui, secondly, partinlly as we may, nr perhaps mnat, comprehcnil
this aliliject, in common with all sabjects wbiub nlatu alrictly and
Bot«ly to the nature of uur future life," &o. Palej, Surmtn 18.
" Thp second [assertion] imputes the evil to a cause in itatlf iaevit-
ablo, and whieh hu only incidentally and partially operated in pro-
ducing it." Southcy, EtMj/n Xiirat and FiiRlical, Vol. 1, p. 331,
"The inward principle deTclopa in some degree, hut pertiaBy niiU
unequally: issuing in an inconsistent, or inchoate, or badly propur-
tioned, creed and polity." Dr. Newman, Mnaya Crilicat and Mit-^
UrieaC, Vol. 1, p. 334.
" Shatespeare did perfectly what .JUchylus did parliaUy." Mr.
Buskin, Lteturet on Arehileclure and I'ainlitig, p. ISI.
A few references here follow. Miss Burner, Ceeilia {\1SS), Book 1,
Oh. I ; Book 8, Ch. 1. Ursdale Pries, An Eiiay on the Pictm-iagw,
4e., pp. 2!, 63, 207, 267. Charles Lamb, ZrtUn, Vol. S, p. 263.
Dr. Arnold, IiUrodivtoiij Lectures on ModeiTi SUtanj (od. 184E), pp.
29, 3B, 1S3, Br. John firncv, Hnywarile') Am\itli ef Quren MUs»bflh.
p. 41, foot-nots. Lnndor, Thi La»l Fruit eff an Old Trtt. pp. 142,
294. Mr. De Quincey, Worki, Vol 1, p. 69 ; Vol, 16, p. 163, Dr.
Kewman, Esmy on EeeUsiaitieal Hiraeln, p. 34 : Apologia pro Vila
£u0,pp. SI. 413: Eanyt Critical and Biitofical, Vol. l,pp. 11,34, 3a:
Vol. 2, p. Ifl2 : Micvitieni and ArgummtK on Farioiu Hukjecli, pp.
117, 273. Mr. John B'lskin, Th> sevm Lampi of Anhitietan, p.
Z5: UtilB Thit J.<al {HHi), p. 16S: Tht Qnmtof the Air (1860),
pp. OS, n& : Flirt Clavigeiv, Latter 2, p, II ; Letter 11), p. 16 ; Let-
ter 14, p. 20 1 Letter 23, p. 1 : SeMtnt mat Liliei [ed. 1871), pp. 8,
90: Muntfa Fulr,ri> (cd. 1872), pp. 63, 116; Th Engle'e JX«t
{1872), pp. 23, 175: Una and Ti>(i (cd, 1872), p. 33.
" PartittHy is often oseil, and by educated people, for partly. Even
Hr. Swinburne sars. in hu iut«rusting, but somawhat strained and
OTerwrought, book on William Bbke ; ' If this view of the poem be
wholly or partinlly correct.' But parliaUy, the adverb of pariiat,
means ' with nnjust or unrvasouuble bias*. A Tiew cauuut be lio^
our tongue. Old or new, if not ineradicably estab-
lished, or if not exchangeable for others that comport
with analogy, and are just as intelligible and eupho-
nious, we should give them the go-by. To learn
what to avoid, a heedful study of the best writers is,
though not all in all, indispensable, and will continue
to be so, pending the appearance of lexicographers
much in advance of those who have hitherto volun-
teered to enlighten us. As to choice of words, new
or old, while, among writers of the first class, none
are wild neoterists, there are conservatives of every
degree of conservatism. Of these, some set their
faces, regardless of expedience, against everything
emTtet aai partial. TVlioii rniytliing 19 done in pa>t, it is partly, not
Bartially, done. Both words aro from una root ; but to onnrusB the
two ii to depriva ub of thij una of one." Mr. B. G. Wliite, WuTd» and
thdr Dies, p. U3.
On the one band, ve bnye the historical fact, known to STorjbody,
that partial ligniflea not only ' prejudiced '. bot ' not total ', &C., Kb
when we ipesk of >a}iai-fin' eclipse of the moon'; and, on the olber
hand, we have Mr. White's implied denial of this fucL Further,
Mr. White unalyaai ^'partially correct", m applied to a Tiew, into
"correct and partial'". By hia peculiar logic, hia own new, in the
pmaent instance, if'v?hiiUy wrong ', .is " lefonj and m/iole'. Aa to
the danger of confusion from the inultitoOBlneBS of pnrlinl and par-
tially, it ia, ordinarily, about as great aa that which attaches to fast,
when we lay 'he stands /ml ' and 'he mas fait.'
NoUiing could he more whimsical and artificial than the notions of
enphony inculcated by T.indor; as witness his rule about An»and Aaf*.
Again, he makes Johnson say ; "I do not wiUingly write m-eitailiih
or re-edify. The better word for the one would be rfitttilii>>, if reUort
and re_flx are inadequata ; and, for the otiier, reeoHstrvcl. It is bad
enough ta be affected; but it is intolerable to be at once affected and
uncouth." Worki, Voi. 1, p. 169.
1 find, however, that Johnson writes; "Cape Breton, therefore,
was restored ; and tlia French were re-ctlatiliihed in America, with
equal power and jreal*r spirit, having lost nothing, by the war, which
thoy had before gained." Qlatrvatieni ct the Slali of Affairt in
JfDCCLVL, adfiima.
neot?:ristic canons. 193
in the least novel ; but others, more wisely, conform,
in their phraseology, to the temper of the times.
Popularity, however, or even celebrity, is no guaran-
ty of skill in neoterizing, with reference to need,
analogicalness, or harmony.^ From the best writers
1 Mr. Eichard Grant White, in the new edition of his Words and
Their Uses, has u fresh chapter, entitled Jus et Norma Loqueiidi. And
there I find, regarding several expressions of recent appearance, argu-
ments and judgments which I cannot but decline.
As to Mr. J. R. Lowell's undisprivacied, we read : "It is English,
because its meaning is clear, and its formation normal. Its meaning is
* has not been robbed of privacy \ ;. and it is as correctly formed as
undisturbed.*' But, if it be clear, why stop to define it ? Further :
" No man who felt in him any mastery of language would be likely to
hesitate a moment over such a word." The meaning, as the context
explains, is * hesitate to use the word.* But a word, to be thoroughly
acceptable, should provoke no more demur, on the part of others, than
is felt by its author or adopter. A long exposition of the process by
which the illuminated rise from privacy to widisprivacied follows;
though, if the latter be sufficiently self-explanatory to justify itself,
the illuminated should have no advantage whatever, as regards it, over
the uuilluminated ; and, finally, any one who doubts about the matter
is relegated to the regions of natural stupidity, by the cruel verdict :
*' All this comes at once, by intuition, to men who are masterful in
language, or ready and true in its apprehension." It is not inspiriting
to see an instructor on so very lofty a pedestal.
Acutely conscious what commiserable objects I consent to be ranked
with, for my hesitation at undisprivacied, I do not only hesitate at it,
but protest against it, explicitly and emphatically. The question be-
fore us is, in the main, yet by no means altogether, a question of taste ;
and such is my instinct, blunt or otherwise, that I venture to challefige
ninety and nine out of any hundi'ed Englishmen, to avow, as concerns
widisprivaciedj their concurrence with me. Nor do I doubt, for a
moment, that Mr. White, if ho had met with the word in the pages of
any writer whom he did not particularly fancy, would have held it up,
iind out at the very finger's end of pure and polished taste, for indig-
nation and abhorrence.
*' A finer example of the introduction of a sound, good, new, and
purely English word could not bo found than in the following passage :
.... 'Again, to a starving person we would tel vlOccDMi^s^Wc,\vws^ss^.^-
j)atliical]7, such amuW quantities o£ food as >NO\]iVd enhuncjcr , \V ^\»\.
13
194 CHAPTER VI.
we may, with proper care, gather ideas of the multi-
form considerations which control the right selection
almost starve, a hearty person *. . . . Enhunger . . . has as robust an
English constitution as any word in the Bible or in Shakespeare."
With respect to its construction, enhunger must be referred to en
and the verb active hunger, which has long been obsolete. Regularly,
too, an -en' verb of Anglo-Saxon base should terminate in "en ; and
en -\- hyngran would yield enhungerny with which compare enhearten,
enlighten. And what would enhungerny enhunger, or hehunger signify,
analogically ? Why, ' sharpen hunger *, * make hungry ', for which we
already have appetize. Hence it is superfluous. To denote, as it
denotes in the passage quoted, * leave hungry,' it is simply a barbarism.
Starve, as there used, in ^^ starve a hearty person ", for * leave starved ',
is, also, a bai*barism ; and " would first administer," for * should *, &c.,
is still another barbarism. Mr. "White is unfortunate in the neoterisms
and neoterists selected by him for commendation.
Besurrectionized, he tells us, " is bad enough ; worse, if possible, than
its fovcTMiLiiQVy resurrected.^^ Both these words I have treated of in my
Jiecent Exemplifieations of False Philology, p. 73, note 1, and have
shown, that, however one may dislike them, they are legitimate forma-
tions. As to resurrectionize, we make substantives in -ist, as we want
them, and from all manner of bases ; and, though they ought, by a
classical rule of evolution, to be preceded by verbs in -ize, when we
have once got them, or even substantives in -ism, or of other teimina-
tions, inverting this rule, we freely develop such verbs out of them.
Hence, from resurrectionist, resurrectionize. Similarly, we have the
old melancholize, used by Coleridge ; physiognomize, used by Southey ;.
colloquize, used by Southey and Miss Charlotte Bronte ; Mr. De
Qaincey's ventriloquize; Mr. Isaac Taylor's religionize; Mr. Charles-
Kingsley's misanthropize ; and the diplomatize, excursionize, optimize,
and pessimize of The Saturday Hevieiv. If it be contended, that
resurrectionize was formed from resurrection, without the historical in-
tervention of restvrrectionist, parallels to it offer in Coleridge's objec-
tionize, and in The Saturday Review's fractionize and processionize.
Substantives of other endings than -ist and -ion have served as bases
of annalize, antistrophize, balladize, biographize, canalize, capitalize,
censor ize^ churchivardenize, cojicubinizs, conservatize, cottonizCy demo-
cratizCy dissenterize, energize, formularize, formulize, hybridize, mono-
tonize, ohjcctize, pauperize, pedantize, phantomize, pulpitize^ sensize,
skeletonize, sororize, sultanize, summarize, testimonialize^ typographizc,
for every one of which verbs I could furnish respectable authority. Mr.
White writes, too, as if quite certain that resurrectionize is of later
birtli than rf.fN}TfcL On what grounds? &o\vl\ie>j Mst^ resnvrcc<io««
I
NEOTERISnC C.UIONS.
expressions more or less familiar to us. Words
and meanings actually new to us stand, as regui-ds
ict as long ago as 1HD4. See the Sekcliotu trom bU letters, Veil. ], p,
270.
"And what are the mimotiured llepublicans doing, but eeelcing to
perpetuate, in the Southern States, the social nuisance of cbua-distinr-
tiiins ? " Hating copied this passage from some nnnamed newspaper,
which, for ite philological sins, is branded with the aame epithet that
it gives to "els*! -distinctions ", Mr, While puts on his terrible blaelt
cap, and proceeds to pasa sentence on winiamered, aa being " an eiecra-
hle compound " and a " hideous verb." Kb;, forgetful of due jndicial
impasBiiity, he wflies emollonal, and screama, in a paroiysm of agony :
" By what process did a man who has been able to coiam'and the right
to nsa a pen in the leading columns of a first-rate jaumal, reach that
depth of degmdation in language, compared to which cant ia classical,
and slang elegant P " Bo the process what it may, Iha critii; seems to
hate had personal eipertence of aoniething rery like it, baffling as be
finds its analysis.
Misnomered, as I shall show, is not entirely a honor; and, as to
age, our very great-grandparenta luiew it, as witness Bichardsun's
Panula (ed. 1811), Vol. *, p, 121.
To diampioa tnhniimeied ia not in the least my intention. And yet,
seeing that life obtrudes opoa us so many real provocatives of righteous
wrath, it is bslilly s thing to rave about, and shrieli at. afler Mr.
"White's fasfaion. The word is not wanted ; and there, summnrily. ia
an end. As lo make, it is absolutoly faultless. From aome ancient
substantive for name was derived an ancient verb for iiAinc ; and,
from the latter, the verb manaiiu, which we have not chosen to turn
into a popular substantive. The substantive (ni'sHomn- was dealt
with, by the author of miimomerid, exactly as Some one, ages ngo.
dealt with an ancestor of the substantive nami ; and, in creating his
nnminil lerh, he did ea, towards enriching our language, we do con-
stantly. He alao seems to have preferred a IHiller .bodied word than
mittuisied, — just as Mr. White, in his new chapter, prefers iiiipi-
CHnimity to povSTty ; — and, under the impulse of taste about On the
level of our castigatoc's, he realized his option.
Mr. White's summing up is as follows: "Now again it is to be
observed, that rauTraitioniad and mutunnind ars not outcasts because
they lacl: the sanction of usage, or the authority of eminent writers.
They are no newer, nor lesa sanotionBd by use, good or bad, rude or
cultured, than undvipriracUi, or tireettd, or mhimjej'ed ; no stranger.
I« the common oar, than vitapmied. But the hitter are sound and
koBlthy growths ; the former are fungi, nionstroua acd. ^liC'X^v.'i.;^
CHAPiSB VI."
their eligibility, on an independent basis. Those
which are ehgible must, without reservation, supply
A wiitermuet heenvialilv confldrnt of hisnwn percei)ti»c iiierranoy.
thus to BBt Dp, nith st^nmful air Rnd catliedra] dognrntism, his indivi-
diul arereinUHnd upptobatiun, as oriteriH fnr thsdEcisioiiBoF hia feUow-
bein^. And Btippnse thnt » man honesilj Ijnita it imposaible to like
ind to dislike cnnf^irniablT with tha ukiises of & aelf-utecttrd antocrrtt :
whiit than P With twautiful oonBistencj, he is pitilasaly admonishBd of
bii prGsumptudusn^sa, ahoutd he think of cnnnting himulf among
thoae who feel in them "xny mnaterj of lan|^8£e."
After a faw more worda, I ahull drop Mr. White fnr the present.
Prom Tht Knight't Tnie ho quiitus, in hia riev chnpter, the expressiuii
" iat&t listen and ertho and see ", and then sayj ; " Now, for auoh a
use of tol/i, the ' nuthority', that is, the example, of Chiiucer can be nf
no more weig-ht than that of an anonymona adTertiaoment in a newa-
piper. Etjrinulogy and usage, including that of ChBucer himself in
other pasBiLg«<i, make the meaning of bolA ' two taken together ' ; and
itia impoasible that the same word Dan mean ■ two ' and ' three'. IF
fifty pHSBages ouuM be produoed from the vrorlis of Chnuoer, Spenser,
Shakiapeare, and Milton, in which ioih waa applied to three objecta,
such a use uf it by othei'a might be eicneod, but it could not be joati-
fiod. The caae is extreme, but, therefore, of value : it brings tha
point out aharply ; and by aiicib examples a point tu bo estitbliabed bus
ita beat illuatration. And there it ia ; bolJt, used by one of our greatest
poel^ to mean 'three taken together'."
This comment, I submit, butrayi an absence of the most ordinatj-
degree of acumen. For its fundamental error consl'^ts in confounding
the Eonjnnction iolh with the pronoun ImlA ; words as different, in
Dutuce, aa et and nmlia. In ' Paul and Peter and Philip were iaih
there ', which nobody aaya, both {amio) ia made to mean ' three ' ; but
nnt so in 'Solh [it) Paul and Peter and Philip ware tbare'. • Bulh
Paul, Peter, and Philip', thoogh the ooramn after ' Paul ' ia a sub-
stitute for and, ia objectionable, because little supported by uaage.
Juat such an eipresat[)ii I find fault with in Dr. Johnson. See p. 20(1.
Not are parallels wanting aubversive of the principle on which Mr.
Whits aieerts it Co be "impoiiiible that the same word can mean 'two '
and 'three'." jinyand bohj, which, hy virtue of their parentage from
and ni lit, ' one ' and ' nut one ', originall; required a singular
i, hare Ion; been allowed to take a plural reib. " If anjf of yon
Uek wisdom, let Mm ask of Ood." " JVoin an to bo had." The first
npreaalon ia obsolete ; the second, in comparison of origin, ia modem.
Aug baviug lost ita eiclnsiTply dngulair denotati.m, we should nnw
M/ ']{ any Bill of fou', Sai,, whieh, in old Euglieh, would be
KEOl'SRISnC CANONS. 197
deiiJerata ; and, while doing so, they must fulfil the
i-uTiditious which it ia reasonable to impoae on de-
siderata. We live in days when our language ia the
subject of daily and daring innovations. Revolu-
tionism in all ihinga is, indeed, the spirit of our age;
and this chapter will not have been written in vain,
if it shall but serve as a. contribution, however meagre,
towards teaching the art, in the domain of speech, of
revolutionizing after precedent.
pleonastin. To a aligbtlj different purport, we also any r ' II' ang of
yoil ball wisdnm, lut l/iem ask of God ', wUicli was not old Engluli.
And we aaj, alsii, anp man auil any nuit. Aiy, origiimll; iatcnding it
single peraun, hus, tbias, vume to be a substitutu for kd iudefluile [iId-
taSiVf of peraona, as well. Over and sbovu usiige we huvc, tUereioTe,
uimlugj, ia support of "AeMrkevcn and ertlie aad see'', and of Cob-
" He prayclh well, wbo InTcth well
Both mim and bird und besst."
Our (orefDthers thought good to ^tcnd the use of the conjunctioa
*d(A, while they left the use of the pronoun ii>(A,froni which it sprang,
unexUinded. But the coiijuuctiun bus undergone no uxtfndon, us con-
I'ema iu eenm and tsitential lanotioa. Unauled, it nerer even eoupled ;
hut, as It may help to cuunect two rhiDgs, so it niay help tu Hgj;lG-
gato a dozen. It is liolh with and tbot joins two tbinga ; and, if a
third thing is to be added, how osn the IcBKliiDg be cfft-cted betUr
than by auoiher and .' Eit&ir, Khfther, and neither, the conjunu-
tionii, contribute, in like manner to buth, hut yet only contribute, to
the linking iuto a group nny number Of constituents. And they, too,
cuno from pronouns which do not contemplate more than a duality.
Mr. White, in a. letter to Tkt Xca York Ttimi of June 7, 1873.
wntee : '' 1 have observed aiity two inslaucui of the use of iaih in re-
ference to three individuola." Why, there vi"Biith mongrel, puppy,
whi^lp, and hound," ka,, in Goldsmith's fumous elegy; and thero is
" both my duetiu and uumo and propretie," in Udall's Sulph Jlaiitcr
Daiitn; Act 5, Sc. 1. "Only two instances" of ioth , . and . .
and . . 1 Who ihiit knows English eiitieolly can doubt tliat our ap-
proved nutbora, if acurchi^d. would yield two thousand instHncea I
The BDcond edition of Mr. Whiw's book did nut reach me till just as
T was sending niy siith chspter to the press. Otherwisi', I shoidd, ill
earlier pages of this rolume, bave noticed winv al t\a wwusw^k.
CHAPTER VII.
OUR ORiNDFATUERS ENGLISH.
Ut ail lie foliia prono
I'rima, cadunt, its vorborum vetUB inleril stas,
£t, juveDuia lilu, Sorcot modo Data vigntitquQ.
In order to exact ideas of current English, it ia
neceBsary to take acconnt, as of the late accessions to
it, ao, and primarily, of ita defalcations from the speech
of our recent predecessors. If, as Mr. Marsh most
nnaccountably asserts,' " scarcely a word that John-
son^ and his contemporaries would have used haa
' Leclurei on lie Englich Zasguagi, p. 1!7.
* Johnson I siiall not ortpn quote in the cneuing pag^s, nnd for the
rsaaon, [hat, though bia imitaloni nere nanieroua, for from being cha-
rMteriatic, as a writer, of the ago in which he lired, lie traa signalij
an innorator. Of absolnte ooinages his diotioa presents, perhaps, nu-
thin;; ; though 1 Buepect it would cost a long search to find prooedent
fur the Bubstantive dwiadie ; and the same sunnise may be entertained
touching his use of riiiile, prejudiet, vnexetpHosalitg, and unidiat. As
to his words, it is ohieQj bj his fondneaa fur ponderous Tocablea of
Latin dentation that he is distiogniahed from moat of his educated
cunteniporanea. His htyle haa been well described in a passage which
I take from a somewhat obsoare BOnrce, " The wiitiogs of Addjaon
nnd Dr. Johnaon have often been compared. One of the chief paints
of DonCrast in thtir style liea, I apprehend, in the sn^y and natural
reourrenoo, in the former, of the verb ; and the artificial prepood-
erancB giien, in the latter, to the noun. Since Dr. Johnson'a time,
the suhetantiie has been gaining giound ; the iuflnitiTe mood, the
gerund, and the compound participle hare been, in the aame pro-
portion, suppressed, in many wurVa of whii^h the cunipositiun ia highly
oluborate. As far as unstudied writings can be expieaaed in set phtaioB,
the usurpation haa extended even to these." Anglicus. in The Auialit
I Jeaitia/ and Monthlji Stgitttr, JH., Tol. 6 (IBIS), p. 439.
OVS. QBANDFATHEBS* ENCLI8H.
iecome obsolete," I Lave begun a chapter for whicb
pthere are no distinctive contents available. As to
Aulhor la Johnson vaa of a dictionnry and a( D. gtammar of utir
\ Itnguage, his viewa of giammaticiil pmpriuly, as be practically ei-
emplifieil thiim, wen:, un many poiuts, unsettled, or worse. Tbis, and
roucli beaides, will plainly eauugti be ovidenced by the subjoined
" NiilAer search tiof labour are necessary." TAa Idlsr, No. 41.
I Thus he ordinarily eonatrUDU nHther . . ner ; but be also writes,
tnore like s modeni :
" I «aanat furbeur Id mention, that neither reason ner revelation
Ani'u you la hope," £c. Letter to Mr. Jama MlpAituloH, Sept. 26,
1750.
" Ignotnnoe or dulneaa have, indeed, no power of affording delight ;
but tbej never give diBgust, aicept whtn they aisume the dignity of
luiowledge, or ape the sprightltneBS nf wit," TAe Samiler, No. 179.
i Alao see T/it Idler, No. 87.
" Saeli of these histories eoniain facte," ke. Dedication to Tht
Eeangelieal Sietor;/, &c,
, " I found some boobs on a shelf, among which «■«■* a volume or
^^knore at ' Prideanx's Connectbn '." A Jom-iuy, &<)., Anoch.
^^^K " The namber of printers «vre small." An Emay on the Origin and
^^^^Smportaiiee of Small TtbcIh unit Fagitiae Piicei.
^^H " The second person may tell the secret to tha third, apon the sama
^^Mrinciple Of he received it from the first." The Hambler, No. 13.
^^^Er " Its memory is continaed for the same reason ai its vehvmence waa
^^Pu llrst promoted." liiil., No. 40.
^^f " If traveUen were to doscribu the moat luboured pcirfannan<^es of
] art with the same cnldnesa as they survey them, all expectations of
happiness from change of place would uease.'' The Idler, No. SD.
" Ha mingled in cursory eonversation with the same BleadinesB of
attention us olbora apply to a locture." Lift of Saua^i.
" Other men reeei'e dignity from dreaa ; but mj booby looks always
more meanlg for his finery." The Liter, No. 95.
" The b»»ittty remarlu bow frightfully lUe looks." The Samiler,
No. 193.
"The learned, the jndicinna, the pious Bovrhaaru relates, that he
never saw a.criminnl dragged to vieuution, without asking bimsvlf,
' Who knows whether this man is not less culpabla than lae .' ' " The
j Bamhitr, No. 114.
ire discernment than him, in finding out the
jtidlcnJouB, nor a more ingenious manner of showing it to otliers." A
H the Griik Comedy.
2UU CHAPTEB vn.
such conteuts for it, however, I fiDd myaelf enibur-
Tussed by superabundance of material, ratber than
" Manj uf tbe bli;aEing8 imJvorEully desired nra verjt fruqtlentlj'
wanted; becaHae moat men, wlien tliey slionlii Uboiir, euutent tbem-
xUe» tommplain," &.a. T/it Sami/tr, Ma. ITS. Also see No. 5.
" Capable to give ns ahado." Preface to Shakespeare. " PenuBling
lo deiii/ the ubai^e," Life of Walltr.
" Bein<t now receiTed, as a nit, nmoiig the wits, he paid hia onntilbn-
tiuna to Uternrj' ondertakidgs, and assieled both Che Tatler, Spectator,
end Quardiaa," Lifeof Rughen.
Une should nut object to ■ bath tlie Tutler, and the Spectator, and the
Guardian '.
" The solace ariaing from this consideratiun seBms, indeed,- the wtak-
tut of all etheri, and is, perhnpa, ncier properly appliud, but in cubis
where there is no phice for rcfleetioaa of mora apeedy and pleasing elli-
«wy." Thi Sandler, No. 62.
" I Mt/adtd to have tortilen about Easraa." Zelter lo Mrs. Thrale,
Sept. n, 1773.
"Tluire waa once a design, hinted at by Oldiaworth, to hare made
him uaeful." Life of Edmund Smith.
" Eteri/ man who lalaed himself upon the graces at hia person, or
the elegance of bis address, croaded aioHt me ; and wit *and splendour
L'Unlnnded for mj notice." TUi Sambler, No, 130.
"The comparison of Ait [Milton's] iiumlxirs with Choie who have
enl^tated the same manner of writiag, will shew," && Hid., No, 91).
" Davenant was, perhaps, at this time, liis favourite author, though
' Gondibert" «eter (^cbts to hare been popular." Life of Dryden.
"He that conveys knowledge by more pleasing ways m]iy rerj
properly be loved as a bunefactor ; and he that supplies life with inno-
cenl amusement toill he ea-tainly cartesed as a pleasing companion "
The Idler, No. 86.
"There is no tree /or «( Aw shelter or timber." A Journey, &c.,
Aberhrnthick.
" This fraud Bould only be eoimterarted by an edition pqcally cheap
tnd mote commodious." Life if Tope.
>' But words an only hard to those who do not understand tliera."
T&i Jiler, No. 70.
Johnson has many eeotences like the two last. In the next, " only
iy " is tor ' by merely '.
" Cnddies arc so abundant, at some times of the year, that Ihey are
CBnght like nhitebaSt in the Thames, oiilii by dipping a basket and
drawing it back.'' A Journey, &u., Talitkor in Sky.
"Soverer inferior to the heroes who were bom tn better ages, he
01IB GBANDI-AIHEHa EKGLISM.
by deficiency ; and the reader will be enabled to
judge, i'rom the particulars about to be set forth,
might still be gicot amoDg his conteinpuruiieit, nirh the hope ot' gron-
iUK BVery daj grealar, ill the dmindle of ppBtsritj." iife nf JUtilaii.
" 1 kaow that grent regard will be had to your opininn of an vitidon.
(if Shftkespeara. 1 desire, thereftire, to secure an honeat prejuiiK in
my fmuiir, liy s«ooring yout sutTnigB," &0. Thi Piieate Carrenpondeuci
9/ llajiid OarrUk, &c.. Vol. 1, p. 183.
" The rocipiocal civility of authors i« one of the moat riiible Kenea
in the fiirue of life." Li/i af Sir Thmrni Brawni.
" A few wild hlaoders and riniblt ahsurditios .... may, for a time,
(tilniBh fully with laughter," &x:, Sidiimary, Preface.
'■ Tho aeriouB aud ritibli part " of a play. Life -if Drj/dcn.
JtitiUe ii thus used by Chnrlea Maakliu, Lwc d la Mode, Act 1,
'.oBi-axf, there ace maiiy true
\e liim but thiougli a grate."
" U he carries the eealpiug-knifo aoi
Srilone tliat will ueTer be porEuaded tt
The Jiiltr, No. 40.
" These observations ore to he considered not as vKtxetptiotmhtji con*
slant, hut as containiug general and pcedoiniiiant truth." linJaK la
a/mitsptare.
The right word is itivarieUy., or aiaaliiUlij, or, to use a niodem-
ism. iiiKXwptiona!(g. Huvtevor, in Euprl'a Ze^iaij/riipAui Neuloyira
Uallica (18U1), "Ajouter un article ezerpUaimil i unelui" isrendtred
"To oAi tm exofptignaSU article to a law," AndMr, Huikin writfs:
■• How few of UH hovB any bruins or souls worth speaking of, or fit to
trust to ; that bdiig the, alas ! almost wiexctplioHailt lot of human,
creatures." Fori Ciansa-a, Letter 7, p. 9,
" We amuse ourseKes with Hiiiilsal sounds." Thi Sambtrr, No.
IS*.
" Wenry of the drudgery of pronouncing anideai sounds," Life ef
Milton.
'• He deliglited to tread upon the brink of mtaning, wliore light and
liarkneas begin to mingle : to approach the preeipice nf shsui'dity, and
hover over the abyss uf wideal vacancy." Zi/e a/iltyi&n.
Since iileal does not mean 'containing ideas', vnidral cannot
mean ' toid of idem ', ■ idealess '.
" All forcignen remark, that the knowledge of the eommon people
of Kngland is gnattr than that of any other vti/^ar." The Jillur,
No. 7.
" Fainting is so nearly allied to poetry, that it camwl be u-imderei,
at those who hnve so muoli esteemed the one hove poiii an cqiuil
rcgiird to the other," AitAccouvt of tht Karkiiui LitiTovij.
B seems to hure had,
X\)4 CUAFTER VII.
whether there waa uot a close analogy, here and
there, between the language of our grandparents' and
Here follow a LatiniHm, a Gallicum, and a Scattirisia.
" Drydeii bad been more accoatomcd to bosiilitlea than thai BUDb
onemiea should Imak hia quiet." Life of Prim
"What be bad of humnrom or pasaionate 1
not from nature, but from other poela." Lifa of Bry/hn.
" Tbey wbo read his characl«r will not much condemn SacharisHa,
that she did not descend fiom her rank la bu embraces," &c. Zi/c iif
Waller.
'■ The dilficuUiea through whirh this worlt has alniggled into light,
and the delajs with which onr hopes have been long niootEd, natnraily
lead the mind to the lonsideralinn of the common fate of pQSlhumuM
amponlioiu." The Idler, No. 64.
Hon can a compoiititui date after its author's death ^
"He expired, . . . having eiij'aytd, by tbo benefit of hia rogimffu, a
Iohr and healthy life, and a gentle and e«sj death." Life a/ Morin.
Thia eitraordinai; person not only enjoyed his death, but first died
and then expired.
So Gibbon has : " Of the nineteen tyrants who started up under the
reign of Gallienus, there was not one who er-Jmjcd a life of peace, or ft
natural death."
The expression 'enJot/tiaA health' has often been ridiculed. But
even the French, with all Ibeir mucb-yauiited logieal inatinet, aome-
times commit analogous blunders. See Le Sedresseur (1866), b; M.
F. G. de Dnmast, p. es. Exception is there taken to " Les coniiner-
^anti chinoisyDuiMffll d'une aasez isamiaiae repjttatiim" and to " Hoa
tAcejouit d'une Ixki-inauvaix eant^." ,
But Johnson by no means stands alone, among writers of fame, for
perpetration of bulls.
" The poor man bos been afflicted with the inoet lasting iit of the
gout he ever underwent birfore." Shenet^ne, Lelteri, Ho, 8S.
How can a fit of gout be its own antecedent Y
" It was the most beautiful scene uf animal enjoyment that I ecor
beheld, or ever ahall behold." Southey, CaUiiqaiet, £c., Vol. 1, p.
14B.
An experience referred to the future is here included among oiperi-
enees declaredly past.
I raturtl to Johnson presently, where I apeak of arcbaiama.
' Of the books, &c., quoted in this chapter, there are very few, if
Snj-, which were not written, or revised, subneijucntly to 1760. Thii
fact I atat^, lest my younger readers sboold niisintErpret my title. My
own graad/athera both died in 1809; and everything that is hero
I
ova. qbakdfAthzrs' English.
■ their full-bottomed caxons and ramelliea, their ruffs
and petenlaira, and their spinets and minuets.
Peraonal peculiarities of vocabulary, whether
archaisms or coinages/ though their presence in the
adduced must hava bcon fuuilki' bi tUem. Tlii^jr vtera not, to be Buie,
Engli»hmBQ by birtb. — not were tbeir tfltbers before tbem, since tbe
time of Elizabeth or Jamea I.,^ — but, as Dr. Johniion phruBes it, " New
Englinb". However, tbe great-grftndliitberH ot ray younger readera,
and mj ovn grandfithers, differed but little, as tu literature and
■peech, from their fellow-eubiecto aoross the Ocean, I4n one who has
explored their libraries has to be told, tliat, whether PuritauB, Anabaptists,
Quakers, or Churchmen, they used to get over the latest publications of
the day, fresh and IVesh, and deTour them, just as thuir descendants haie
been doing e>er iince. That tbey nudeistood them, and that, iutheii
' language, thuy kept up with the times, it would be needless to iiiBisC.
The quotations immediately to follow might easily be amplified ten-
fold; and I have forgone the accumnlntion □> more, simply to ke«p
down the she oF the book. Some of the tonus which they eiempllFy
are ([uitB obsolete everywhere ; othera have become loCBlisms ; and
others, agun, however widely cnrrent, have lost mare or less of their
former respectability. Nut one uf them, in short, at present holds the
place wbioli it held a hundred years agn. Several of them, though
now unknown, 1 believe, eictpt in England, are current there, among
the vulgar, to a degree which would hardly be inferred from books.
Such arc ail at tver, lor ' in spite of all ' ; at to-morrow, for ' to-
morrow'; can' I tiWBy tcilh ; ineaiai, for 'in order that'; each olhtr
time; gat Jy, for 'cheat'; ef ill men Hiad, for 'spontaneously';
i'n'f, for 'is not'; He, for 'lodge'; Main, tor 'very'; mori, for
' Urge quantity'; iiesr, for 'stingy'; pal upon, for 'deceive'; un-
S'in, for ' ungainly ' ; that day viae a Mtontk, tut ' that day month ',
or ' a month after that day '. As to chamber, lit/, and a few other
word^ though Americans may be surprised to see them here, they have
been introduced advisedly.
In the foot-notes, I have given, not uufrcquenlly, references, and even
lupplementBry exlrsebi, in proof that the expressions exemplified in
the body of the page do not belong eiclueivirly to the latter half of the
lost oentnry, but are of earlier origin, or have since then been used
sporadically,
' As 10 archaisms, Dr. Johns'in's are as instructive as those of any
one else. I transcribe a few of them.
By this abiiiplion pOBterily lost more instruction than delight."
Zifi 0/ a,u,by.
lit Sylfha and Qnomes act, at t\te tuikv a^W* \»«,-\x^a\E,-«\is^
pliraaeology of the days here contemplated demands
recognition, are, as not being charaoteriatic, only of
crfu! ]>hiinlora5 perform on the stormy ocean,
' . well tnowa not to have teen formed i^ the
r Drj'den."
more t*mfie andnmrp
Uf the Held u£ batlle,"
" The person
nii^est model." Hid.
" Tbe concluBJon a loo eiidentlj modelled jy (hut o
Hill.
" It [pent] 18 like wood charkai for tlie smith." A Joanieg, &c.,
Oiitig in Sky.
" He emmnunitated himself tlu^ugh a very wide extent of acqiuiint-
ance." Life of Garth,
" We muy reflfioanbl)' oonjeoture, that .... their eainpoaarei
were pastoral hymns," &c. Thi BaaJiter, Ko. 36.
JolinsoD, in his Life uf MiUan, ases toiiipoture for ' composing '.
"So oertoin is it, that eorreetion it the tonohstone of writing."
IliiKi-talioH on thi Greek Cotatdy.
'' The church of El){in .... was . . . eulTered to ililayiilate, by
deliberate robbery and frigid indifference." ji Joitrnnj, &c., £lgin.
Also see the Life of Dyer.
'■ Thie Essay uiTorda an egr/glai's instance of the prednminanae of
gi'siiu, the da/zling spleudotu of imagery, and the seductive powers of
L'loqiienoe." Life of Fope.
"Far l^e greater part of human miDde nerer enifeaiiDKr their own
iinpruTement." Letter ta Mri. ThraU, Aug. 6, 1775. Also see the
Life d/ Walltr.
" I did not observe that the oommon greens were wanting, and sup-
poee, that, by chousing an advantageous expoiicioii, they can raise all
the more hardy teculent plants." A Joiimei/, &c., Ostig in Sky.
" This is one of the few books which acleotion uf sentiment and
elegance ot diction have been able to priserve, though written upon a
eubject^ux and Imnsitory." Life of Sprat,
"A hundred /uH-egg; new-laid, were sold, in the islands, for a
penny." A Juiimty, ka,, Lochhuy.
" If proper colonels were once appointed, and the drums ordered to
beat for female volunteers, oar regiments would soon be filled, without
the reproach or cruelty of an iinprefi." The Idln, No. S.
" On the sincerity and punotuality of this confession I am willing to
depend for all (he future regard of mankind, ud cannot but indulge
sonio hopes, that they whom my oifcnce has alienated from mo may, by
this instance of ingenuity and repentance, be propitiated and lecon-
riled." A Letter la the Serirend Mr. Douglas.
"It all attempts to innovate the constitutional or habitual chicaoter
[ subordinate importance, with reference to the subject
[ uuder conaideration.
L have reollj proceeded from publio spiriE," &ii. The Saml>hr,lXo. 179.
I " At her luisuru huurs, she Itiokt goQse-egga, airs the wool-room, and
[ turns the cheeae." Ibid., No 138.
" Our guides told M, that the horses conld not traTel all day without
St or jHial," &c- A jQmiity, &c,, Anoeh.
" Thej were made, at once, iniupporiablf insolent, and might, per-
I linps, ban becamu irresistibly powerful. Lad not their niovMniiiuux
\ tnenfia been scattvred in the uir, with the ignomiit profusion of uiS'
t MDUstomed opulence." Thought m Ike Late TrUMaMom, Sm.
" Mountninoua treafinres" is for ' treasures conl^ed in muuntains.'
" Soma have tontured to coadeinn mankind 0/ unirerEiil
I 'ingrrttitude." T/u Rambler, Ko. 146.
" The chief desire of him that aiamtnU an author is to ikvv,'' &c.
I PreffUi to Shaktsptan.
In modern English, on it required after the Tcrh cammeMt.
" That [barn] . . . was bo «intrisBd .... as, bj perpttnul jwi^ndo",
I to prevent the mow from heating." A Journci/, Ac, Oslig in &ky.
" For want of a proecat of erenta, neither knowledge nor elegance
} preserve the reader from weariness." Life uf Wial.
" He itudied all metiiing, thea dined at a tavern, and went, after-
wards, to Button's." Lift o/Additm.
Goulhej has a like old idiom : " Whole Nature is amazed," &>'.,
r'i'nrf. £cc/. -Inj/., p. 456, foot-note. " jlW rfniM of Lis Ufa." Chel-
Ue. KiniAarti Oie^ime (1692), p, 7 tfA. 1841).
"They who grow rich bf administering physic are not to be
nnmbered with Ihrm that i^t money by dispensing poison," Thoughla
m the Late H-SHiaCtiana, &D.
" It is diflicnlt even for imagination to place us in the state of tieiii
. whose story is related," &C. Life of Cowley.
" Dr, 'Warhnrton had a name sufficient to confer celebrity lo Ibu^e
who could exalt Iheniselves into antflgoniata," &e. Preface to Shakr-
Add t!lB ohaolele, or else rare, argiimenlal, rotiglabnle, extemporal,
ituuiMplivt, milearota, muituloai, oblunil, oraeuhue, oiUlr/, prcpcif
linH, linitlrotu, eotmt, id. &e.
In Cuwper's Zitttrt are the (ollowinff words, many of which are
I nsed pUyfullj: the labatAUtite* trehdeaenaitm, beaHfifcatian, eommtn-
•Tthip,fnigiMp,hemii'gdi,joUation,niidthipiHai>ihip,mirrgfVHgiKg,
I tfidomfy, tvbteatarion, Ivatuiatarihip ; the adjectives itat/iorly, deedff.
' epipovllrieal, eierilorial, txiputory, liU-aforaneonn, homoloiioui : Nnd
tliK verbs active ilUpiriuri'ji ipintolite, paaoifg, and ra'niwsfs.
Among preterites and participles, many whioh are
now heard from none but the grossly ignorant, had,
not verylongago,areputation considerably fairer than
indifferent. Examples are seen in lloirecf,^ catchet/,''
Henry tfooke, in Tie Faol ef Quality, Tina many stnuige terms.
Among iaaa are tlie suliaUntiveB hiaidkmeiit, extertiily, inlimiiy,
jilmhiemeHt, reprobacy, aMrrick; the adjectivca adtniiaite, emnpaiiivi,
inquiiUori/, molhtr-naifd, revimbU, yeanlmg ; the tetljB actite diietn-
iruli, lAievi, unprinciplt ; the verba neater angiiiah, domaticBti, obtrtide ;
eapCiint iot'-aneti'tporlBtitiot ' weight ',/Baifiie for '■pio\a\i\i',dtfial
for ' defeated ', avervnlue for ' eloeed in value ', gusrter for ' esplore ',
I certainly speak within hoanda, in eatimaling at tliree thousand the
expreasions which I have collected, like those derived from Cnwper and
Brooke, ventored by nritem belonging U> the period of our lanirun^
here in view, the period of the reoaBcenoe which began during the last
fifty years of the eighteenth century.
' Colman and Thornton, Tlie Ommiiitur, No. 66.
" They were puff 'd up with a wind wlijeh hlovieii some f^oj to man-
kind." Banow, Jfwi. (ed. 1683—1692), Vol. 1, p. 207.
"At last he from the table rose;
He picked bis teeth, and bhiesd iiia noae."
Sir John Vanbrugh, Emp, Aet 2.
AIbo eee The Cruel AiaauU of Godi Fmi i^imflTj.m Old BBllad;
Stc. (1840), p. 31: Sir Thomas Urqubart. Tranalation iif EaUlai*
(ed. 1694), Vol. 2, p. laB ; De Foe, Mull Flandei'i (ed. 18M),p.271;
The PidiUeat Sitlory of tU Bivii (ed. 1840), p. 92.
< " The friar cnteltiii eagerly at her request of hia adviee," &c.
Horaee Walpole, The CaitU ef Otranio, Chapter 4. Also see Hittarie
Loubtt, Ac, p. 100.
Hawkesworlh, The Adventurer, Nos. S, 8, 88, 91. Colman, The
Cemediei of Terenee, &o. (ed. 1810}, p. 397: Tie Deuce ii in Sim, Act
2, Scene 1. Henry Hrooke, Anlnny atid Cleopativ, Act 1, Scene 4.
" Urate. Do you lolerale aitched ?
"Johnion. Sir, I was leached belter."
Landor, Warii, Vol. 1, p. 153.
In Johnaon'a Grammar we read, however:
"Fight, teaeh, retuh, nek, beaeeeh, ealeh, biii/, bring, think, work.
lalAx jevght, taught, raughl, lauyht, betaughl, caught, bought, brought,
theufhl, wrought.
"But a great many of these retain likewise the regular form ; as
ttathid, reaehtd, braeeehed, catehed, worked,"
Teaehtd I do not think I have mot with often. Wlien about to
wkc.
ahined* slit/ed,^ throiced* and in begun, ^
broke,' enl,* rid,' rode" run," spoke,"
\
trnnecribe the rollowing rude rimes, I noticed tbut Or. JohnEUU ^ail
quoted part of theatania:
" Aa huswives are teaeked, in sUad of a olocke,
How winter night pusaeth, bj crowing uf ooclio,
So, here, by the plaueCa, si [arre as I due.
Some lessons I leave for the husbandniaiu ahire."
Thomas Tusser, Fiet Bimdreth Faiiiiet uf Good Embandrit, £e.
(1573), Ch. M. Bt. ],
' " Mr. liliiukwell hii« nsither dipged in the ruins of snj domoliahed
tity, nor," &o. Dr. Johnson, Rtcism of ' Memoirt 0/ the Court (if
Mig»'tU' '.
* " Their learning, at best, was auch sa conld only have lAi'niv/ in dark
tiraei." Bishop Lowth, Sinmoiu and Other Scmaius, p. 166.
' " The docliritiea grew more precipitous, and the sand tlidtd from
beneath my feet." Dr. Johnson, The Viiioa of Theodore.
AUo SCO Godwin, An Enquiry, &e. {ed, 1793), p. 363.
"The metitllic surfaces were lUdid back." Lord I.yllon, TIk
Coming Jiaee (3th ed., 1872), p. 20G.
* " I bad rather Major G. Ihrauied away his money than somebody
else." Gray, mria (ed. Mitford, 1858), Vol. 3, p. 282.
"The Pastorells orrrthi-ined in Franca." roller^ The Hislorie of
the Saly Warn (ed. 1S47], A Chronologteall Table, under A.D. 1260.
' " I shall Bniih wh"re yon begun, with ray apology." Gray, The
CorrapottdenK of Gray and Mmon (od. 1855), p. 355. Also see p.
455. I^ce, further, Miss Carter, Lelttri to Miu Talbot, &c.. Vol. 3, pp.
273, 317.
" In with yonr »rt ! Proceed as jou brgtai '
Why dwindle to a cruet from a tun ? "
ColmHn, Epiilte to the Piiat.
* " He informed me that he had heeptke ordinary chairs for oommon
uiu." &o. Johnaon, The Rambltr, No. 200.
Alao sec Cnlmun, Prolate t« Tit« Capnehin: Lord Camden (1774),
in Tht Friealt Corretjumdeitee of David Oarn'ek, Ac., Vol. 2, p. 2.
' JobnsoQ, Tht Samiler, Nos. 1, 59, IIB. Goldamiih, The Viear
of Wakefield, Ch. 10. Cowpor (1783). b'eri.. Vol. 15, p. 133,
Dredale Prio!, An Eimy on the Fietnrt>que, la., p. 201, Mrs.
Inelibnld, The Child af Nature, Aet 1, Seeno 1. " An iinirolv horee."
Cumberlanil, The Naltml Son, Act 4.
" ■' Under this easy go»erament, the flt»t generationa of men breathed
the tragrance of perpetual spring, eal the fruits," &c. Juhn&on, T/ie
Ittmiler, f
" Nutei Id Uu ui
tBagii.l
writ,' wrofe,^ for began, bespoken, bi-o/cen, ate, rod<\
ridden, rail, spoken, wrote, leritten.^ And no leas in-
elegant scema to ub, in the preaent day, the mis-
) of numbers in rjoit was, which once was
[n tliis <
■vdios
I josterday." Churlea Jlscklin.
' " I rid my ni
Love d U Modi, Act 2, 8cl^^e 1.
1" " Having rode." Miaa Burtiej", EivUiia (ed. 1779), Vol. 2, Ch. 2 :
' Bouthey, Lifi of mtlty [ed. 18B4 ), Vol. 2, p. 20.
" Gray, Vurii, Vol. 3. p. 1. GoldsDiitli, Tht Vimr of Wah/JItU,
Ch. 6. Mi^B Bamej, CicUln. Boolf 6. Ch. 4. Mrs. Onivley, Mare
Waj/a Than Onr, Act 4: Who'i Ihi Dupe?, Acll, Scene 1. Mth.
InchbHlil, ThcMiduIgM Hour, Act 3, Scene 1. Gi\i\>oo, Miirellaiitoui
Worhi (ed. IBli), Vol. B, p. 2BB.
" MUb BuWfly, CMille, Book 4, Ch. 3.
' " I writ in Urma more prBeeiog, Ijnt wilhont efFeot." JohnBon,
TAe Rambhr, So. 171,
"He vril, and hunted, nnd drepalched ambaseadnr?" &c Id.
(1766), ^11 IntfBdmli'M to Ihe PritUiral State of Oirat flnM.n
And BO Arthur Murphv. in The Frivati Conetpmdriioe of Sat id
Gnrrick. tc. Vol, 1, p. 619.
"Hoia a happj man who ten* that letter." Miss Bnmcj, Oetlur,
Book 1, Ch. 10,
Writ WUB ntod lor willsa, also. " Is it yon who haTe ant this'
Gen. Conwny, Fillm Apptaraiiat, Act 4, Also see Miss Carter (1789),
Letltri to Mrs. Montagu, Vol. 3, p. 314, and oft*n.
» •' Thay were wrote without communication," Dr. Johnson, Dedi.
cation to The Ernngtlicai Sinlori/, fte,
" r liops ynn liave mrole to him tho state of your mind." Edmund
BOrke (1797), Tfa Epittolaiy Comepnndena if Barke and Dr.
Fnnfh LaureHce, p. 128. Also see CBrre^ponUnee, &e., Vol. S,
p. 130.
Sterne. (Toj-ii (ed. 1819), Vol, 4, p. 3B7. Gray, The Vorrmpond-
nm of Omy and Mato» (ed. 1866), pp. 331, 397. 430, &o. Genrpu
Colman, Tirra Filiia, No. 3 ; Prologue to The Chapter of Aei'i-
dente. William Cowper, Work), Vol. 6, p. 38; Vol. 15, p. 20.
Cnmt>erhtnd, The Natwnl Son, Aot 1. Miss Hannah More, in The
JVifo'e Oorrtipandmiie of David Garriek, &c., Vol.|2, p. 228.
I itup, only hecaose it seems needleaa t« go on. Gray has ehent. fur
.ahauit ; Miss CRrler, drove, tor drivm ; Mre. Inchb«ld, firieok, (or
■n ; Mias Carter, ihtiok, for i Ja^ ; William Cowper, " I bad
I " ,- Mis. Inchbald, ilole, for italitt ; &e. Ac. &c.
widely sanctioned by persons of tke highest educa-
In the passages which I shall now quote, uses of
prepositions and conjunctions, obsolete in our time,
will be conspicuously observable. A much larger
exhibition than will be found of worn-out substan-
tives, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs, would easily be
feasible, and has purposely been forgone ; woi'da
belonging to these parts of speech being, in all ages,
laid aside, as they are devised, with a readiness which
cannot be predicated of employments of particles. It
remains to be added, concerning those exemplifica-
tions of disused idioms which are adduced, that there
is scarcely one of thera but was chosen from at least
a dozen, extracted from the writings of as many
different authors.
" I must tell you, sir, that I believe you '11 not make a
better husband than a friend." *
" Oh for a shame ! Would you throw that away upou
a brute, which is due to your fellow-creatures ? " '
" A draft upon my neighbour was to me the same as
' "As I told you, when ^u mm hen;" &o. Cowper (1780), Worii,
ToL 1, p, 1(1. AW so, Vol. l3, pp. 33, 31, «G, 08,
"Ton icoj prevenWdby," &c. Bishop Shipley (1780), in Manoirt
of Sir Wiliimii JofUt, p. 194.
" I im MTiy yeu teat dtHppointcd of going to Tallombrosa."
Honce Walpole {1791), in /ourna/i and Corrapondtna sf JHUt Serty.
Vol. 1, p. 367.
Also see Dr. Hewltesworth, in TAc Private On-respondetiei of Dacid
Oarrick, £c., Vol. 1, p. G3G : Mus Carter (178fi}, LelUri to Mit.
Jfimlaffu, Vol. 3, p, 258, and olbm: Cnmberland, TAt Natural Son,
pauim.
■ Gen. ConwBj, Fain Appiaraiwtt, Act £, Scene 2.
> Cumberland, Tht Naturul £m. Act 1.
14
money; for I was sufficiently convinced of liia afnliiy."
" I have seen a huge oatli quivering on the pale lip of
a reigning toast for half an hour togetlior, and an uplifted
eye accusing the goda for the loss of an inld trick." *
"The first puhlic-houae, .... having heen a well-accu*-
iomed inn," &c.*
" I admire where a fellow of his low rank should acquire
such a nobleness and dignity of sentiment." '
"All these qualities agree just as well to the oak,
t^;aiust which he contends ; nod he actually attributea
them to the very oak, in the next section."'
" I do believe the two Pretenders had, privately, agreed
the matter beforehand." '
" I dare say you . . . had your boots stuffed with all
and all manner of unlawful wares and merchandises."
" He would not stay with me, all aa ever I could sa
" That will make no great diti'erence ; for I shall be
able to prove my right to it, all one." ^
I GoIdBinilh, T/u Vicar of Wakefield, Ch. H,
' Murphy, Tht Way to Kup Bim, Act 3. Ami so Southej.
"Tha Romanista aecaie the ProWatantu lot thoir indiireremre." TJii
Qaarlerli, Reciiw, Vol, 1 (ISUO), p. 193.
' Gravta, Tie Spintml Quixote (fli 1820), VoL 2, p. 61.
* Henry Brooltc, Tie Female OJ^r, Act I, Scena 13.
Admire, neuter and ocliie, has been used, in tlio bcdsd it here hcnra,
even in our centarf.
" Nor ii it to be admired, that eome of the prieste themaelvea were
among the most EeaJoua of Cho converts." Southey, Tht Quarterly
Retieie, Vol. 43 (1830}, p. 13.
" U, Alphoneo de BeauFhamp makes the wall ten feet, without ap-
pasring to admire the leap." Id., ibid.. Vol. 15 (1816). p. 46.
» Bp. Lowlh, Iiaiah (ed. 177S), Not.'B, p. 16. ' Fit ■ is iutanded.
• Gray, Wtirki, Vol. 4, p. 4B. A little before GrBj, Guy wrote;
" I have alTairB with my brother btlow ; so agree the matter between
jourselveB." Tie Uitlriiacd Wife, Act 2, Scene 7.
1 CowpM, Work; Vol. 15, p. 4.
■ Mias Bumey, Evelina (ed. 177B), Vol. 2, letter IS. "All thai
attrl oonldsay" occurB in Eiohardson. Pamela, Yt>). 1, p. 265,- Vol.
j^ p, 123. ' Miss Bumoy, £viliiin. Vol. 2, L«tt«r 13.
'■ 'T is idl alunij of you that I am tlius liaunteiJ." '
" 1 'm, in. talk, a pedant musical ;
In fine tcmis I lug intruaicol ;
Slap bravuras, alt, the rage about,
Haydn, Mara, opera, stage about."'
" I have certainly knoeked up my little roan gelding, in
tliis damned wild-goose chace of three score miles an end." *
"A child naturally goes on all four;* and we know
how difficult a matter it is to set him an end, or to keep
liim so."*
' Hpiirj Brooke, TAi Fool 0/ QwilUn (ed. 1792). Vol. S. p. 88.
SnTnelimes, all aloiiff with wos uaed, farmerlj. Faote, The Devil upon
Tico Slick!, Ant 2; Tht Maid of Bath, Act 1.
For long of, in the same aetise, see Glanvill, Sttpiii Seimtijica (ed.
1663), p. 103.
• JoLn O-Kesffe, The Uighlvnd Reel, Act 2, Siifno 2. All is meil
for ' altitudes ', that U in say, ' heroics ', 01 the like, by Ridntrdson;
in Clariita Earloim (ed. 1811), Vol. 3, p. Sfl, and Vol. 6, p. 145. In
the mme woik, Vol 5, p. 2:12, we rend : '■ From the nature of thgit
conversation, there wan no room fur altilmlei."
' Colman, The JcahiH H'ffe, Aet 2, Scene I, "Fiva and twenty
milei an end." Colman and ThumMn, The CoBiioi'uear, No. 106.
Also see Richardson, Clm-ism Sariova, Vol. 7. p. 220.
" Wush aheepe for Ihe better, where walor doth ntnne ;
And let him goe clenety, and drie in the ennne :
Then ehare him, and epnre not, at two duiee an esi;
The Booner, the better bis corps will ivmend."
Thomas Tuaafir, FUt lluiidrelh Foiulet, &a„ Cb. 42, at. 1.
' For '■upon all/uiir", see the Bishop of Kiln.ore, in jlbel Rtdr-
rii'UM, p. 74 : Jeremy Collier, Ths Emperor Mama Antoniiiai hii
Vonvtnalian, &c., p, 2S7.
> Bp. nome, Olla P-drUa, No. 23. " My novice shall start, ho,
anil hit hnire stand an end.'' "With her haire sn end," Dekker,
SiiUre-maelil (1002). eig. E 3 r and G 3 r. "Your hair etaada up
an end." Lodowick Carlell, The Bcitiving Farorke (1B2S), Act 2.
" Standing an cud." Bickerslaffe, Lote in n VUlege. Act 2, Scene 3.
Robert Baker, in his Btmartt on the Enyliah Lunyuage, 4c. (ed.
t77fl), p. 114, aaya, of "stand an end" : "Thoa people pronounce
and, moiit cnnnnonlj, write."
At p, S3, Bnker eoiidemna <HmI an eti^, meaning 'for the most
part', UBcd by Warbuiton. This cxpreasioti I find in 6p. SaadBuo^
CHAPTER YlTi..
" My lady Isabella is of anotherguess mould than you
take her for." '
" The rewards, also, are, at pnblic scLooIb, as well
chosen, and as approprialKd, as the pimishmenta." *
" Your lordship is so condescending to offer to enter it
along with me." *
"As had as your veraea 'were, they are yours."*
" But, before pnmBhment, he was to be heard at to-
morrow." '
—SennB«i (ed. 1681), Vol. I, p. 6B, ami Vol. 2, p. 118,-
in T/n Simon of Ciurch Goeimmait, &o., by Milton, A
Dictionaries.
' Horace WalpoU, The Outh o/ Olranlo, Chapter 2.
Goldamith, Ths Vicar of Wakejiitd, Ch. 19.
' Colman, Fnte on Sivernl Oeean'on', &c,, Vol. 2, p. 233.
' Burka, Conaspondmet, &c., Vol. 1, p. 313.
Her« we miss an at. In the two next extra
■upprlluous.
In the EU^BbBtlian era, the second as of o* soon aa was aomctimpi
omitted. " Let that bume first ; and, lu aonn I see that on fire, I wil
walke towards my liBenda.'" Tarltan't Jtili, &C. [ed. Mr. J.
HflUivrell), p. 103.
' Mason, OirrttpoiideHet of Gray and Maien, p. 341. Also set
Sberidan, St. Fatriek'n Day, Act 2. Scene 4.
' Bp. Warhurtoii (1763), A SeUctim from Vnpubliihrd Fapcri, io.
[he
I, there is an at now
I. 22S.
. the 1
PripBllev, writing ii
sold Bi this day."
1826). p, 86.
In hooka of the sixteenth and sercntaenth oentnriei, 'at then'
occurs, not unfreciuenlly, for ' then '.
" This Braailiun king, being arrived, was brought up to London,
and preseoted to King Heary 8, lying aa then at Whitehat!," Hak-
layt,Vol. 1 (1589), p. 620.
" Because, qnoth be. I saw them n> t):en to endure both pnines
and perils willingly; but now I perceive they can beare prosperity
wisfllv and with moderation." Philemon Holland, Cyrupadia (1632),
p. 191.
■*My greatest pastinie oi then was to read the feats of chiraldry."
"1 tu then was very iJendar." Tht Camicat Hillary of Frandon
(18S3), Boole 3, pp. 73, 74.
OUR grandfathers' bkqltsh.
213
" It 13 a rale with me to
ne civility as it ia made." '
"Fen Tuinds are so base
I amend." '
" I must tell you, my Harry, said
mighty good boy."*
"The two lirst liEes of the following book seei
I ascertain, the true meaning of the conolusion of this." *
" A numbar of external succeasea, also, assisted to per-
ieive every offer with the
that perseverance cannot
Jioio you are a
L to
Compare oui ' oi jet ' : ' nobud; haa como lu yet '. The old ' nhen
■u 'i ofWn writwn as one word, ib knuwn to every una.
" I bare been sbipirrecked three tiiiiea ; und oacc, ai now, I vas
tbe onl)' man wbo escaped." Eev. Cbatles Xingalej, Tim Yeara jtyo
(«L 1857), Vol. 1, p. 113.
Tbe coiileit bIiowg Iliit "oi noir" here meaiu 'on tbe preaent
In other eomtTUCtioai, too, « was once used vhece we use it no
longor. " IrenieLU, the Apostle'a uholer but ones remuTed, — lu v\o
was uholer to I'oljcarpus, the echoler of St. John,— tnalces menuon
of the Apoitles' Creoit", &c. Aihwell, Hilei Jpottilica (16S3).p. 76.
> Mm Muko, TAt £amtler. Ho. 10. Also see Sterne, Ti-ulnim
' Skii«d^, Vol. 4, Ch. 19.
"It will be read with u much plcamre et it was represented."
I Bp. Warliurton (1762], in Tht Frivalf GirmpandtHce of David Gar-
riek, £o.. Vol. 1, p. Ml.
And Bomuwhul uniilarlj wiitea Coleridge, who often is verycnrelora.
" It is uked in whut seuse I use these woriis. 1 answer : in the
tome sense ai tlie terniB are employed, wlii'n we tefer to Euclid far
I the ulem^DtB of the scieDce of geometry," He. Cliurch and Stale, kc.
I H- 1839), p. SSI.
~ '", nioce rcprehensibly. Lord Mooaulay, on one ocoiuion, makes
I ai atajid fur ' as that with whk-h ' .
" The Mug took the money of France, to assist him in tbe cnterpriaa
I which he meditiit«d a^inst the liberty of hb subjecte, with as little
scruple ai Frederic of Fnissis, or Alexander of Uussia, acvopted oui
■obsidiis in time of war." EKtag an HaWtm't CantlilatioHai SuUry.
» tioldsmilb, Tht Viear of Wakefield, Cb. 27.
• Henrj Brooke, The Fool of Qualilg, Vol. 1. p. 9S.
* Cowper, Odjfite^, note ou the lost line ol Buuk 11. Also see Bp.
jljiwth, Juiah (ed. 1778), Notes, p. 6.
214 CHAPTER VII.
8uade ns, in those days, that felicity was to be attained
and ascertained upon earth." ^
" like Pannegiano, he endeavours at grace and grandeur
of manner," &c.2
" You shall have them at fall. I have committed them
to paper, for the instruction of future ages." ^
"I ... live in constant expectation of hearing some-
thing worse, and, at the long run, am seldom disap-
pointed." *
"Whatever attention and volition are then imposed
upon us, as it were at unawares, are but faint resemblances
of our operations in the same kind, when awake." *
" Does not the substitution of one manufacture or in-
dustry for another require time I Does it not require time
for an individual, thrust out of one avocation^ \xi gain
admittance to another ] "*
* Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality, Vol. 2, p. 6.
In these two passages, the senses of ascertain are, respectively, * de-
termine ' and * make certain of *, as contrasted with the present sense
of the word, * find out as determined or certain.'
2 Sir Joshua Reynolds, Literary Works (ed. 1819), Vol. 2, p. 194.
3 John Wilkes, The North Briton, No. 24. " They shifted full
upon their shields, and stood so as they might hehold the wall at full."
Philemon Holland, Cyrupadia (1632), p. 166.
4 Cowper, Works, Vol. 6, p. 289.
» Godwin, An Enquiry, &c. (ed. 1793), p. 868.
• Id., The Enquirer, p. 196. Also see pp. 166, 188, 239. This
use of avocation^ for * vocation *, however common, has seldom had the
sanction of good writers. Yet others than Godwin have trespassed
into it.
" I did not think that any avocation or employment, however import-
ant, could have so much engrossed me." Richardson, Oorrespondenee,
Vol. 5, p. 64.
** Oh ! people of our avocation differ in respect to conscience.*'
Mrs. Inchhald, Next-door Neighbours, Act 2, Scene 1.
Sydney Smith writes of **the ancient avocation oi picking pockets."
Works (1-vol. ed.), p. 27.
Lord Lytton, in using it, stands pretty nearly alone, I suspect, among
very recent writers of any celebrity. See The Coming Race (6th ed.,
" I cannot wonder that my ivifa
Took this so ill. Women are passionate,
1872), p. 195. It is no more gond English tbaa bi« " cD«ni»iiwi' to
eiist," It p. 13B nt the eanie work.
Mr. Bouchar denies that this substantive is used in the ringiilar num-
ber ; and Archdeacon Todd produces no initnnce of auob a use. It it
emplofcd in the singalar, tn its proper sense, h; Hej'Un.
" It seems, then, only as an atocatioii, as they direrted bishops and
the rest in ordera from doing the worlt of their Yocation." Tht Eit-
tory of Epiieopaty (1667), I'att 2, p. 21.
Fur like instanoes, «ia Dr. William TwUsb (1636), in Mede's
Workh[eA. 1664), p. 1037: Steele, Tkt Guardian, IS'o. 51: Aaron
HiU, ffVi. (ed. 1763), Vol. 2, p. 228 : Johnson, Tht lUmiltr, Nos.
8. 27 : The Idler, No. 3.
The plural, avacBliuni, very annmnlouelj, inverts, in most cases, the
accepted sigoificatioa of the aingulni.
On the one band, for example, Colman and Thornton, in Tht Con-
miiMHr, No. 70, uae it for ' irapodimenta '. And so does tile loutnBd
Miss Carter.
" My answer to yoar letter is sufficiently fiipeditioua, but wanld have
been still mure so, if I had nut been interruptud by the headache end
many other nnpleasant avoeatitiii." Letteri to Mia Tribal, &c., Vol.
4, p. 117. Also ace Cowper, JForkt, Vol. 2, pp, 29, IBfi ; Vol. 6, p. 83.
On the other band, it was long ago UEed, sometimeB, to denote ' pur-
suits '■ ' duties ' ; and such is, I think, almost uxcluBively, its madcin
import.
" Making abatement tor his military acoealiot", and late applying
himself to study, scarce anyone is to be ptcCerred before him for gener-
ality of human learning." Fulior, TAn lioli/ Slati, 4c., p. 72.
J, C. Scalii^r is here spolcen of ; and the duties of a soldier couGti-
tuted his ealliog, UU he gave them up For literature.
" The youth must have more violent pleasures to employ his time ;
tbe man loves the hurry of an active life, ilevoted tn the pursnita of
wealth or amhition; aod, lastly, old age, having lost its capacity for
these avoealKHe, becomes its own insupportable burthen." Grove,
The SfKilator, No. 623.
"I am now grown old in the avoeatiani of the gown," Bishop
WarbiirtoB (1721), Trscit by Wm-burliM, &c., p. 15,
"Wlion his other more momentous atacatiriM of pedantry and
pedagogueismwill give him an interval from liiswmlh and cnnlenliim,''
tc. De Foe, The Faliticai JlielaiTf of the Ltril (ed. 1340), p, 23a.
" There are profeBMona, among the men, no mDre fnyourable to tliesa
■tuiliea than the common avmaliom of women." Bicburdson, Sir
CHAPTER vrr.
Aod can't away with such aETnjuts &3 these."
Charltt Grandiim, Vol. 6, pp. 393, 391. Also «ee Corrirpondmct.
Vol. 6, p. 127.
"It seemd detcrmioeil, bj the genera] Buffrage of maciltind, tbat
■orron ii, to n certain point, InuilablD, as the offspring uf lore, or, at
least, pardonable, as the effect of weakness ; but tbat it oug;bt not to
be Buffered to increase by induigBuce, bat must giTB way, after a slated
time, to social dnties and the cuuimon avacatioia o! life." Johiuon, Th»
JUmiIrr, No. j7.
" Mr. Btiggs, bowsvflr, hag the entire nmnagement of jour fortune ;
my many OTOfttfioHj obliging toe to decline so laborious a trust." Miss
Bumey, Gwi/io (1782), Book 2, Ch. 10.
" And a schoolbpy is, perhaps, more qualified even for suoh an appren-
ticeship, as well as for the more liunourable and hszardouB amcalioHi
of the anny or oaTy. than a young gentleman bred in a private family."
Colman, Pi-^e on Seimral Occaiioaa, lea.. Vol. 2, p. 2o2.
" Or, if you are not arerse to the task, and your avocalimit will
allow you to undertake it," &e. Cowper, ITorUt, Vol. i, p. 79. And
tee his Prafaco lo the Iliad.
" The largest portion of each year was dcTotod to his profe^iunal
dnttes and studies ; and nil the time that could be saved from these
important avocalioiit waa dedicated io the cultiiation of scipoce and
literature." Lord Teignmouth, l^emoiri . ... of Sir fCStiani Jotwi
(ed. 1806), pp. 287, 288.
Also aee Thomiia Taylor, The Commenlaria of Proctus (1792), Vol.
1. p. zixiiL I omit references to Edward Moore, I'aley, Uodwin,
Wordsworth, &e. ftc.
Such is Soutbey's vM ot the word, and again and agoin, as in TAt
Qvartcrly Review, Vol. 2 (1B09), p. R8 ; Vol. 34 (1829), p. 307 ; Vol.
87 (1828), p. ZS : QiwperU Worki, Vol. 2, p. 12.
** In a few hnura, above thirty thoufand men left hia standard, nnd
relumed to their ordinary atoeatieta." Lord Macaulay, Etiag on
Warren Smting:
Also see Mr. \i'iitia,Li!eliiresosA.rchiteelHTtandFBiiiling,f. ItD;
Aratra Pmltlici (ed. 1872), p. 1.
Dr. Worcester, though he says that avocation "is eometimes im-
properly used in the sense of ' vocation ', a profession, or regular pur-
snit," deCnes by it ttnphj/mtni and engiigemcnl. Dr. Webster's
Editors lay down that omwoiiou, for 'vocation', "is very improper" ;
■nd jet thoy give, as synonyms of mgagement, " BiDcation, bosineaa,
nnployment, occupation." On the sense of atocatioat, above treated
of, they are silent.
Culman, Tht Camediaa of Ta-eiice, 4e., p. 328.
OUS QRANDFATHEBB' ENQU8H, 217
" I have been, three days ago, bad again with a spitting
of blood." '
" This ia some conspiracy, I suppose, to bam, to chouee
me out of my money."^
" It was uU a bain, madam, a scene we thought proper
to act." *
" And I promise you she shan't lie to seek for the
" Her mother chose that name for her, said he, because
she should not be called by her own." ^
" I am, at least, very unwilling to esteem ' John Gil-
pin ' as belter wor/h than all the rest that I have written." *
" I was blitodeil, indeed, but to no purpose."'
" Mr. Sterling will never get rid of Blackl'riars, always
taste of the borachio" &c.*
" Give me leave to wind up the bottom of my loose
thoughts on conversation," &c.*
' Sterne, Icftrri, No. 106. Also seo Miea Curler, Lelleti (o Mri.
JConfi^M, Vul. I, p. 209.
" Foote, T?ii Caaneri, Aot 3, Seene 1.
* Murphy, T/u Way M Keep Sim, Aot 4.
* Faott, tlu Maid o/ Balh, 4ot 3. Also aee HichardBon, Sir Ciarlu
Oi'aadiium, Vol. 1, ^ 257 : Cumberlanil, Thi Sutural Saa, Act 3.
» mcliardaan, Paiwla (ed. 1811), Vol. 2, p. 361. Seeauu hare
DieaaB ' in order that '■ Alao sen Colmaii and ThoruCun, TAe Connah-
vm; No. B7 : Hra. IneUbald, A'exl-dmir Nefighbaun, Aet 2, Soona 1.
For a modem instance, gee Mr. Cliurlaa Keaile, Fut Younelf in Hit
I'hue [ad. 1870), Vol. 1, p. 49, For an old one, see Dektor, Thi
Dead Tearme (1308], fol. 4 T.
* Coirpar, Woris, Vol. Ifi, p. 1B2. CompBra theold " faWsrehelip."
In Vol. 16, p. 16, CowpBT hue "littlp worth", fur -worth litHa '.
' Id., ibid.. Vol. e, p. 60, Also loe Johnion. Lift of Srydtn :
Cnmbertand, Thi Natural Soa, Act 6 : SjAaej Smith, Warii (1-rol.
ed,), p, 63!.
* Colmun nnd Gurriek, Tlii ClaniieAtim Marriagf, Act 2, Scene 1.
" MUBt Bach borraehof as you tula upon you to lilily a Tnul of
etico? " DrjdeD, An EMning'i Lore, Apt 3,
» Culmnn, Tin Gentltmmi, No. 6. See BcntUy, Worii, Vol. 3, p.
7 : Charlei Dibdin, 7»< JJuirtir, Act 1, Seene \.
218 CHAPTER VII.
" If it had come to an oath, I don't think he would
have bounced, neither ; hut, in common occurrences, there
is no repeating after him." ^
" I 'U he her bridemaidy and, hefore she has been your
wife six hours, give her more longings for laces, diamonds,
feathers, and fops, than can he gratified in six years." ^
" I now know the town too well to he ever its
bubble," 3
" And so here I am bubbled and choused out of my
money."*
" I '11 write to my Lady Conquest, to know the truth
about that giri that was here but now." ^
. " Buxoniy which means only * obedient ', is now made,
in femiliar phrases, to stand for * wanton *." *
^ Foote, The Liar, Act 2, Scene I. Also see Colman, Epilogue to
A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed : John O'Keeffe, The Fanner,
Act 1, Scene 2. In the silence of the Dictionaiies, I had better add,
that bounce here signifies * lie '.
* Mrs. Cowley, More Ways than One^ Act 1. Also see Foote, The
Commissary, Act 3 : Miss Burney, Cecilia, Book 4, Ch. 7. Now we
say bridesmaid. Contrariwise, instead of owx poor-box, the old expres-
sion was poor's box. See Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakejield, Ch. 4.
' Foote, The Minor, Act 3, Scene 2.
♦ Murphy, The Citizen, Act 2, Scene 1.
• Id., All in the Wrong, Act 1, Scene 1. Also see Colman,
Frose on Several Occasions, &c.. Vol. 2, p. 265. This use is old. See
Mabbe, The Rogue (1623), Part 1, p. 24S: Milton, Prose Works
(Bohn's ed.), Vol. 1, p. 412.
" He who but now was little less than an angel of light shall be
painted in the blackest colours, for a slip of the tongue," &c. Hazlitt,
Characteristics (ed. 1837), p. 25.
• Johnson, The Flan of an English Dictionary. Buxom had long
had ' wanton ' for one of its meanings.
•* Make much of every buxome girl.
Which needs but little courting ;
Her value is above the pearl,
Thdt takes delight in sporting."
Sir George Etherege, The Comical Revenge, Act 2, Scene 3.
OCK QRANDFATHKRS' ENGLISH. 219
"Wlien they came stiU nearer, the eaiiking of some
Spanish, geese, the gobhling of turkeys," &o.'
" It does not institute a niaguifieent auction of finance,
where captivated provinces come to general ransom, by
bidding against each other," &c.*
" I . . . can think of nothing, and wish for nothing, but
laugh, gig, humour, fun, pun, conundrum, eaii-iwitchet, and
Catherine Clive."'
" Adjoining to your eliamher .... is a very decent room,
in which your own maid might repose herself to her wish." *
" At laat, a eliapman approached, and, after he bad a
good while examined the horse round," &c.'
" We find ourselves ahaost inextricably involved in a
bloody and chargeable civil war." *
" Your faithfid lover is, probably, cheapening a hunter." '
" Matter I Why, I am invited to dinner on barbecue,
and tho villains have foigot my bottle of ehian." *
" Here the company stared ; as it was well known that
he never bad but one brother, who died of the chin-cough." '
■ GrsTea, T/ie Spiritual Quixi/ii,\o\. I. p. 168. Also eeo Sbeaatone,
Zetf«rt, No. U.
> Burke, SpiKh on GmeilialfBH tiiUA jimffiiea.
' (iairick, FHvitle CoivtipBndtnei, Sec, Vul. 2, p. 29S. Abo tee
Hu9 Cartar, Iflliri la Misa Taliol, Ac, Vul. 1, p. Ilfi.
Tbia turm, for 'absucd question ', is atill heard now and then.
• Cowpcr. Wori; Vgl. 6, p, 278, Also see Qoldnnith, Tit Viear ef
WatijUid, Ch. lU.
• Goldsmith, The rii<ar of Wakefield, Ch. U.
' fiurke, Correfmdatm, Vol. 2, p. 122, Also gee Miss Barney,
Cecilia, Book 2, Ch. 1.
' Ciilmui, The JealuM Wife, Aot % Scene 3. Also ue Miss Bar-
nejr, CKilia, Book 1. Ch. i.
' Foote, Th4 Patron, Act 1. " 'T ia Chian pepper, indeed. A
liltlo will go a great way." Garriok, A Frep Mind the Curlain, Act
1, Seeno 2. Also lee Colnmn, JVu>e on Sern-al Oeauiani. &o.. Vol. 3,
!ia. Were the words C/iinn and Caijmnr confoundod? Colman,
in his Prologue to The Eiut-ludiati, hai " his tamper hoi Bs Knyiit."
' GrsTca, The Spiritual Quixote, Vol 1, ;, 3B. S>e« ^'\ju«^
XW CHAPTER vn.
" Here my lord and lady took eucli a chink of laugUing,
that it was some time before they could recover." '
" The landlady now returned, to know if we did not
choose a more genteel apartmeat." "
" Now, by this good day, master Pamphilua
Has got a chopping boy." *
" Tour hot pakes and your eggs are good ; and that
that 'a good is the delight of a clnirehman." '
" As it [Irelaud] escaped the dominion of the Eoraane,
80 was it likewise deprived of the benefits which their
government geuerally introduced, — order, laws, dvlUty,
cultivation," '
" If you could write directly, it would be clever."'
" We could not have been in bo clever b, place as this is,
circumstanced as we are, this summer," '
Lavington, The Euthiiaiam of McthodisU and FapiiU Compani, p.
285.
' Hanry Brooke, The Foal of Qiialily, Vol. 1, p. 95.
' Goldamilli, The Vicar of Wakefield, Cb. 31. " Would you oAww*
any refreshment?" Vaole, The Eiighli, Mi2. Also see Colman, P>i>m
D'l Several Oeeatiima, &a.. Vol. 2, pp. 4j, 249 : Miss Buisej, Cecilia,
Ijook 4, Ch. 10.
Tha following is from a book written onlr tha otlmr doy. " ' Du I
(Amw anymore?' I sea, 'why, I tcanl eome more'.'' Gilii'i Trip to
LoHdrm, p. 32,
" Choote, to, is used by low-bred people, wilb the peculiar meaning
of to choaae not to take what is offered. A dish otFered at tnble i>
deolined with tbe words ' I don't choau any '." Professor M. Scheie
de Veie, Amerieaniemi, p. 4S3.
Tbia use of ehooie is no AmBrieanism , In defining it, ProfesHir
Do Vere, as is not unfrequently the ease vitb him, says something very
different from what he intends.
' Colman, Tin Comidiei of linence, &e., p. 38.
» Jobo O'Keeffa, The Friioafr at Large, Act 2, Scene 3.
> Bishop Lowth, Sirmmt ami Other Semaini, p. 160. In the next
page, the Bishop baa cirilivtlion. This was in 1773.
' Gray, Cerreipoiidmee of Qrag and Maeon, p. 88.
' Miss Talbot, MiM Carlir'i letter! to Miai Talbot. &e.. Vol. 3. p.
Ifil. "Theae dteir apartments." Cowper, Wuri; Vol. 5, p. 290,
" My adTeisariea, on all sides, are aiieh cocks of the
game, that," &c.'
"We'll go, brother Toby, said my father, whilst dianer
ia coddling." '
" When ha perceived, in the midst of the combustion
he had raised, that Lady Margaret was incensed," &c.^
" A pretty lodging we have hit upon ; the mistiesB a
commode, and the master a - — ." *
" Dear Biatcr, the bearer of this letter is a lady . . .
whose case is truly compassionate, and whom I most earn-
estly recommend to your protection," ha.''
H here used ty Omj and the rest, is for 'convenient',
' Henry Brooke, Tht Foot of Qualili/, Vol, 2, p. 113. Coek af the
gamt wu loni; uaed where we use game-totk,
' Btems, iVijft-am Shaad'j, Vol. 7, Chapter 27.
> Hiu Buraej, Oeitia, Book I, Ch. 2.
' Foots, Tht Engluhman in Parii, Act I. Commodi here means
" That 'a the old phrase for one of those eominede ladies who lend
oat beautj, Tor hire, to young geutlemen that bare pressing occasioDs."
Steele, Thi OmurioHi Lovert, Act 6.
> Colman, Tht Beiict ii in Sim, Act 1, SceDe 1.
" Tour case ia trnly a euniprmiouatc one." Id., The Siigliii STtr-
thimt. Act 5, Soene t,
" I am afraid neither of ua can repreaent it aa a very eompaulenate
ease." Uiaa Talbot, Jffiii Carler'e Lttlert la Miu Tiiitet, &(s., Vol.
2, p. 33.
Also see Lord CheaterSeld, Thi World, No. 29.
Besides its ordinary signidcutian, eampaaiBnitte — like the Italian
tompauionmolt. — was thus used to mean ' of a nature to more pity '.
A> this meaning, vrhioh it bore for a long period, is rather alighted by
our leiicograpbera, and ia wholly overpaased by Dr. Webster and
his editors, a few oU testimonies will not be out of place.
■' Compaaionale eruelty." John Taylor, Worki (cd. 1630), VoL 2,
p. ISO.
" For, certainly, it were a very ecmpaitioniite spectacle, to aee," ftr,.
Henry Earl of Monmouth, Adrtrtiiemmli/rom Fantamei (1656), p.
32.
"The cryea of the people fi)r Iba imiumerable eitortions and oppres-
ml^^^^m CHAPTER VII.
" He ought to be fearful of putting into the hajids of
youth writers indulgent to the peculiaritiea of their own
complexion, leat they should teach the humours of the
professor, rather than the principles of the science." '
" No converaatiou of any kind passed between the two
persons supposed to be mentioned, except comjAmenial
expressions," &c'
" The melancholy office of eondoling a loss," &c.*
" Mr. Home, it seems, is unable to comprehend how an
extreme want of cmuluet and discretion can consist with
the abilities I have allowed him." *
" They congvatulale our return, as if we had been with
Pliipps or Banks." "
" I am airaid it will not he easy to check the general
passion for distinctness and conapicuiiy." ^
" It contributed a good deal to confirm lae in the coii-
temptihJe idea I always entertained of Cellarius." '
siaas that (rere committed npon them, nnd the tears and iiain;iB>ii'D»a(<
gcoana that were heard far the eipulsion of justice ami equity, were
enough to have melted and wrought pity in-thfl very marhle it self."
Tianalation of II Cardlualiiina di Santa CHesa (1670), p. 21.
Campauionale, a Bubatnntive, for ' one who compassionato* ', is tued
by William Wation, A Seeaeord'm, ftc. (1602), pp. 190, 268.
> Barke, Letter to a Hemlitr of the National Ammbty. For
eeMplfxiaHal inScomplexionalli/, employed eorrespondingty, ape Burlte'a
Rtfitetims on the RevolHtiim in France, nnd Letter to a Mrmier, &is.
" John Wilkes, The North Briton, No. 19. Alao see Mias Carter,
letCert la Mia Talbot, 4c., Vol. 3, p. 188.
' Miaa Carter, Littera l» Mrs, Mmtspv, VoL 3, p. 2*7.
* Lelteri of Jiiiiim, No. 64.
' Johnson, Letter to Mrs. Thrale, Not. 12, 1773. " Cangratulatinii
her arrival." Id., Life of Walla: Also see Sir Joshua Eeynolds,
Literary Wbrki, Vol. 1, p. 29.
« Uvedale Price, Jn Eesmj on the Pictureigie. &o., p. 138. Alan
see William Tajlor. The Monthly Magnxine, Vol. 6 (1708), p. o53 ;
Tht jlmiual Betiew, Vol. 2 (180*), p. 2B3.
' Gibbon, Mieeellmeoiu Worii, Vol, S, p. 286. Alao see his Hie-
tory of the Decline and Fall, &c.. Chapter 61 : Gay, Achilles. Att 1 ;
The Siitreiaed Wife, Act *, Scene 3. Referenoei lo Sir Koger
I'ATUERS EXGI.ISK. xS^K
" It goes into the world with a prancing list de toute
la noblesse, which will being me in three hundred pounds,
exclusive of the sale of the copi/." '
" You are bom a manorial serf, or a crmlian negro,"
&e.»
" I am sure you did not in the least comprehend what
L'Eatninge, Jeremy Collier, Warburlnn, Richardson, Sterna, Mrs.
Filkingtoii, Colmua, Wilkes, GraveB, &c. &c,, might be added.
Old instances of the niiaose of eontsntptiblt and eonlempMly are verj
" ThDBe boies are amtuHptility thrust inl* tho renr."
Dekkcr, The QutU Sonibook (1609), p. 136 (ed, 1812).
See, further, the foot of p. 16S, wipra.
This uiignse is very old, eren older than' Shakespeare, who might be
quoted for it. " The same easia and eontemplibU opinion he held of
es; the like also he did of God hiniselfe." Quealiani of
rrofitable and Pleatant CiKmtrniiigi, &e. (1591), fol. 23 r.
Instances o( eotilniipllKiii, for 'contemptible', are not unknown.
" And, ta declare a conlcmpluause chaunge from religion to super-
edcion ngaine, the prestes had sodainlj set up aU the aultets and
jmagea in the cathedral] ohurche." Bbhop Bale, TAi Voeacf/ati, la.
(1S53), in TJn Harleian jViJscJtoiy (ed. Oldys and Park, ISIO), Vol.
8,p.4fil. AlBo«up, 4B1. For BBtiU earlier inBtanoB(lS44) in Bale,
■oe his StbKl Warkt (1S49), p. S7.
"Thnee abject and esatf/tpluom vickednesscs, thus demonstrated
unto me, fashioned such a forme of obedience and feare to beware, in
me, thai," ire. Qualioan of Fnifilaile aad Fltasant ConmntiHi/t, &c.,
iol 19 T. AUo see fol. 3 y.
' Sterne, Lttleri, No. S5. And so, for 'copy-right,' eopi/ is used in
the Comiml SMory of Ihmcion (lOSo), Book 6, p. 3^ by an anon-
ymous wriler in Attl Jtiilm'ivitt (1651), p. 48; and by Johnson.
Fout«, Cowper, and Miss Carter. This sense of the word is not in
tho Diutionariea. Nor is that of ' size of a manuscript '.
" Tho capy is but small, sir. 'T will make but a shilling thing."
Thi Ewmur, of Whiit (17*3), Epilogue.
Q^y has, further, heea awd for ' edition '. James. A TrtaCiu if
tif Qiymptian of Seriptun, &o. (1612), Part *, p. 76.
Also, for tlw 'original' of a tramlalion. William Webbo (ISBS),
in AiiAnl a-ilieal Ettay; kc, Vol. 2, pp. 40, 48, SO.
" Godwin, Aa Ettqainj, 4o., p, 472. And so WUkts, Colman,
B. 0. Cambridge, Ac. Ac. Fur trealian, as a suhstanl.ive. see Gold-
Qiith, r/-e Vicar of Wakrjldd, C\i. 20: R. 0. Cambridge, TAo B'oi-W,
I meant, by your giving me answera so vary cross to the
purpose," '
" The euakoldl'j husljand might put hia homa quietly in
hia pocket, if he was not industrioualy pointed out for a
monster." '
" Had I not thought him ■what I 've spoken of him,
I would not, for his daughter's sake, have drawn
So many trOuhlca on our family,
Whom this old cvffnow treats so scandalously."'
" Between ourselves, Mr. Lieutenant, the man did not
speak much beside the eunhion of common sense." *
" Even before it is clearly known whether the innoTa-
tion be damageable, or not, the judge is competent to
isaue a proUhitiou to innovate, until the point can be de-
termined." *
" In full day-light, the sun, as it were, decompoumis
what had been bo happily misted together, and separates a
striking whole into detached nnimpreasive parts." ^
" Had a potent enemy invaded Sodom, and a courageous
army been required to give a brave repulse, nothing could
have inapired the defendants with truer courage, than
virtue and the fear of God." '
" The old gentleman . , . most respectfully demanded
' Bishop Lowtli, Sermani and Qlher Remaiai, p. 414.
' Oolnian, The Geniun, No. 14. And see Vanbrugh, 2S« l^ovoM
Wife, A«t 4, Scene 3 ; Act 5, Scene 2,
' Colman, The Camidiei of Ta-trtei, ±o., p. 363.
* Henry BrooVe, The Fimale OJ^r, Act 1, Scene 13. See RiohanI
Bernard, Teretce in Engluh (1688). pp. 70, 230 (ed. 1607) ; Hamon
L'Estrailge, Thi Oiiervator Oiierved {IBS6), p. 36.
" Philelphui, ia diiorse ploDea, had minsed the cuiAm, vhiclie places
BapTiael doeth reBlore and correote, and yet Boraewhero itumhleth
kymselle." Udall, Jpophiheffoet, £c. (1543), The Prerace of Eru-
mui, iig. • 8 r. Also Ke fol. 313 r.
* Bnrke. Lcitert on a Regieidi Feaee.
' Diedale Price, An Smay on the Fietaneqtu, la., pp. 12S, 126.
1 Bishop Lowtb, StrmoM and Other £*maiiu, p. 2S9,
if I was any way related to the great Primrose, that cour-
ngeoua moni^amist," Ac'
" You may denij mo to acuompany you, but cannot hm-
der me from following." -
" The Portuguese, aure, will never d&ny to fulfil the
rest of the article." *
" You, my Lord, are not reduced to bo deploiahle a
state of derelieiioH." *
" They are entirely at oar devotion, and may ^x turned
backward and forward, aa we please." *
" She herself was so conscious of it, that, while I din-
coursed her," &c.*
"England ia diafaitit»hed of its forces."^
" We were roused from a peaceful dish of tea, by a loud
hubbub in the street," &c.8
" Our author would have looked upon it as an instance
of great disingenuity in some zealot of the Church, had
he found," Ac."
"So dimatured are they, that they neglect their own
fleah and blood, to liaten to accounts of your wit and
spirit." 1"
■ of Wakefield, Cb. 14. Also Bee Ch. 9, 10,
mra the eabstantiro denuind, for 'queatiun',
Ih. H. Also aoe Richardson, Famtla (ed.
' Goldsniith, The Viea
18. In Cb, 25 and 31, m
> Jahnaon, Rautlaa, I
leil). Vol l,p. 117-
' Sheridan, Thi Iiiunna, Act 3, Scene 1.
• LttSeri of Jmiui, Ng. 86.
• Godwin, Tht Enquirer, p. 363, And so Goldemith, Letters of
Jwiiut, llornoe Wslpolu, Miss Bamey, Sir William Jonos, Burke, &o.
tu.
• Horaco Walpolo, Tht Caillt i.f Olranln, Chapter 2.
' Bnrke, Corritpondinec, Vol. 2, p, i7.
« BecVfonl (1787), Itals, &e.. Vol, 2, p. 70. Also see Colmnn,
Prologue to The EMl-lndiaH.
' Jones, of Nayland, Thtalagial and MumllaatoHi Worti, Vol. 2,
p. 3D. And so Godviu, Southej, &c tm.
" Mias nnnnah More, ill T/u Brivate Carmpandenee of Davtd
Garriok, kc. Vol. 2, p. 2S4.
u
"I I
: knew hor dispense with her word but c
" ' But I did not know your accommodations were so bad
as Joseph tella me they are.' "T is of no consequence,"
said Edmund. 'If they were much worse, I could dispense
tcilh them for three nights '." ^
" I am sure your Ladyship will dis];iense wi/h youi com-
' Eiuhardaon, Clarissa Martoice, Vol. 7, p. 310.
' MisB aara Reeve, The Old Etigliih Baron (ed, 1B20), pp. SO, 61.
> Richardson, Pamela, Vol. 3, p. 34.
In the first quotation, the sense of dispone with is ' go back from ',
'hreak'i in the eecond, 'excuse', 'put up mth ' ; in the third,
Like the socond quolatioti ia the following : " Adrian moved
that his want of age for the offloe of questor might ha diapatdd with."
Jeremy Collier, Thi Emperor Marau Antuninut his CoHveriation witJk
EUnaelf, &e. (1701), pp. JL, li.
The phrase diapenss aith means 'part nith', in Brathwait, .J
BoHUitr-UetHTe (1640), p. US. In The 7W Lmcathire Lascri
(1640), p. 235, A'ipcBM signifieB 'diapense with.'
In the four enioing passages, dupenie and diipenie with have the
lenses of ' allow by dispensation ' and ' grant a dispGiisatiaD to ', ra-
ipecliTelj.
" Then hrast f orths the holy father, Pope Stephen and
djd asBoyle I'ipine, and diipenie with bira for al the othes whiche he
had made," &c. Of the Oldi Gad and the Newt, kc. (ed. 1534), sig. G.
" Whether the Pope, diipmiini/ all things for money, may be called
Pope Penny-father, and, therefore, be auspcflted of cocelonaaesae ? "
Traqfine in a Trauaa (1566), fol. 108.
"Whether Pope Innocent the eyght, that was utterly ignonwnt and
nnleamed, might be dispmted vjilh tn saymnsEel'" Ibid.,ia\. lOS,
lOB.
■' I abaolve yon of bread and pottage, and dispense with yon lo be
never good for anything." Sir Thomas Urquhart, Translation of
Babelaii (ed. 1694), Vol. 3, p. 190.
Also gee the extract! pertaining to viilfi, at pp. 263, 204, infiv,
Sfupnw, in the days ot Queen EUiabeth, occurs for dieptHte,
" And yet, as light and as easie as this punishment is, it ray; be,
and is dayly. ruspoiMif nilholl, for many; and this ia thoui;ht to he
tbe beat kind of punishment, tu punish them by the purse." Phillip
Stabbes, Tht AnatamU o/Abueei (1586), p. 101 (ed. 1836).
"Easliness was ever a, fault, and very (lig^erviceahle in
all the enterpriaea of human life." '
"Mr. Burcliell, on the contrary, dissuaded her with
great arddUT ; aaill stooil neuter," ^
"The irregular feot in each .... represent diasyllahle
eet'"
"Why vex my spirit! Why afflict my age
For his dUtemperature i "ttHiy rue his Bins 1 " *
" Mrs. Delvila received her with the most distinguished
r politeness. " *
" It now remains, that I return to thoae more aerious
I and important studies .... from which .... I should
I never have dicerted, but from profession, rather than in-
' dination." *
" How shall I rfo to answer, as they deserve, yoar two
i; lettera i " '
"I am always to be docummted by you and your
I ■ Biihop Lowth, Strnumt and Other Stmaitu, p. SS2.
» Goldsniith, The Viear of Wnkifltld, Cli. 13. Tha only prtsent
meaning o( dUiuade, ' divert hy perBuasiun ', ia not j^t in the dictioo-
aiies. " I ha>e tried what is poiisible to diuuadi Mm." Mis(
Burney, VeeUia, Book 5, Ch. 3. We parted too lightly witli dehort,
' try to divert bj poreuasion ', which Beuao was long borne by dtiiuedc,
to the ousting of kihirrt, aa being supcrSuous. Diiadviu 1 name, but
withoot reeomnitndiilg' it.
' fliihop Lowth, Stnautu and Othtr Scmaim, p. 408. At pp. 402.
405, triiijUablii ia on adjectite. And ao ia mauotyllabk in Cowper,
Workt, Vol. 16. p. 320,
' Colmnn. Tht Qtmtdiei of Termct, 4o., p. 6&.
" Miia Bumey, C^iVi's, Book 3, Ch. 7.
• Bp, HaHilki, An Analgiii of the Jtoman Cinil Law (ed, 179fi),
Preface, p. S3,
' Bichardaon, Fumtla, Vol. 3, p. 24. AUo see Vol, 1, p, 4S- -fln
here meana 'coatnTs', 'manage'.
' Id., Sir Ckarlei GraadiKn. Vol. 6. p, ISO, Two pages on ara
docHHUHtalioni and dneumentiu,
" What, yoo «e daemmnling Miss Nancy, rending ber a li'cfcuro
CHAPTER \n.
" I dojihf some Httle difficulty may arise." '
" Mrs. Montagu is very well, and wishes you hanged, —
a douceur which, probably, you might not expect j but,
indeed, she expresaed it very pathetically." ^
" Nor sow thy dowlas on the satin
Of their pure uncomipted Latin." '
" Soon after this, we were calftd to a very genteel en-
tertainment, which was dreaged by Mr. Thomhill'a cook.'"
" If you are dry, isn't there the crystal spring 1 " *
" I hear his vessel ia just arrived. I durst not leave
my house."*
upon the pinched eoit, I wnmint ye '. " Mrs. Susanna Ctntlivre, A
Ba!4 Stroke fat a Wife, Aot 2.
Alao Bee De Foe, Captain Singleto-a (ed. 1840], p. 310, where doev-
ment means • Bctool ', ' instract '.
' Jeremy Bentbani, Worki {ed. Sir John Bowriiig), Vol. 4, p. 15.
And Bimilarly Gray, Colman, Sheridan, Horace Walpole, Cowper,
Cnmberlflnd, &c. &o.
"Yon will hnve seen the papers; bat I ileail that they will not
contain the Intest and most important news." Shelley (1320), Biiaijs,
fie, VoL 2, p. 386.
* MisB Carter, Lttttrs to JKiis Talbot, 4o., Tol. 3, p. 280.
" With a good acoonnt of her health, slie writee me many doacao's,
in wbioh you hare a great ohorfl." Lord Lyttalton (1771), in The Fri-
M« CorrefpandnHce of David Garrick, &c.. Vol. 1, p. ^10.
" Robert Lloyd, The North Sriton, No. 26. Add BicTteratoffe,
Foote, Mias Carter, &u.
* Goldsmith, The Viear n/ Wakefetd, Ch. 82.
■ Sheridan, Tht Daenm, Act 3. Scene 6. Alao see Act 2, Scene 3.
And sea Goldamilh, Tht Viear of Wak^ld, Ch. 17.
> Mrs. Inchbald, The Midiiii/hl Hour. Aat 2, Scene 1. AJao see
The Child of Kaiure, Aot 1, Scene 3; and Sheridan, Tht Dvmna,
Aet 3, Scene 2. and Aot 3, Scene S.
I add oD eitract from one of Sheridan's immediate predecessora.
"Aa for the clergy, no. If I aay a word against them, I 'U ho
■hot. I have no desire ; and, besides, if I had, 1 ditrei not, for my
Boul, tooch upon the anhiect '" Sterne, Tristram Shandy, Vol. 3, Ch.
20.
But ihirat, as the present, is not peculiar to the kngaago of the
OCR OBANDFAtBEBS
"In short, each man's liappineas depends upon hira-
"1b an; man virtnoue? Then lie is u traitor ; and let bun dio foT
it, who tlurtt proBtime to be eood, when hU prince is bad." Fuller,
The StJy Stall iihU the P.-iifane State, p. 39U.
" But rBveread usembliea taaj mnlce more bold with Scripture than
priTHte penona; and, tberefore, I contesal'ra w tiwotous, Ihat I durtt
not ToUaw their eiamplo." Glannll, Lux Urientalit {ed. ieS2), p,
83.
" 80 tbat, if I hud no other argument but tha elyle, to delect the
■puriousnesB of Fhslarie'a Epiatlea, I mjseir, indeed, should be salitfied
with that alone : but I durtt not hope lo eonvince everybody else."
Bentlej, Worki, Vol. 1, p. 81,
Dr. Wubatur's Editors inform ua, that the pnst participle of the Terb
neuter dart in durst. But among what barhariaus is ' I hitie not
durat do it ' good English ? Moreover, the prelarits of the nenler dare
hai been, optionally with dunl, dared, for two centuries and longer,
as I could «how from scores of authors. This, (00, those Editors, Wltli
other leiicographeis, arc not aware of.
While dealing with the neuter dare, I may oiemplify a form, almost
unrecogniiied by nritecH on our language, of its present and preterite,
third person singular, often found in old books, as well as in recent.
" But, as (or the ccrclo, be dare not, for hys erya, onjs put over hys
nose." Sir Thomas More, A Dyalagi (ed. lo21}), fol. S t. -
" What orchard uDrobbed oscapes ?
Or pullet dare willu in their jet ? "
Thoniaa Tussor, live Snadreth Painta, Ac, Ch, 62.
"If men should not gac to lawe, one with another, the fourtiet
would wallce up and down, jetting, by the mercer's ddore, and iTcocini;
his silkes under his noao, wiiich now he dare not doe." Dekker, The
Send Tiarme (1603), sjg. C 2 t.
■■ How palu thou look'st of a auddain ! Be not afraid.
He dare not some againo to hurt thee."
Lodowlek Ourlell, The Detereing Favarilt (IQ2B), Act 4,
"A pretty curr! Jlam it bile, as well as barkef"
air William D'Ayenant, TAe Gruil BnlAer, Act 1.
"Impudence dan not dotty," &e. Fuller, Osod Thoughte, &c, (ed,
1830), p, fii.
" One dare not light a large candle, except company 'e coming in."
" You know uno dare not dibcover jou." Dryden, The Li/ing Loitr,
Act 4.
" Nobody dan come." Viacnunt Grimatooe, Thu Zxwyer'i For-
tune, Act 1,
230 CHAPTER VII.
" It ended in a compromise for a fee each other time." ^
'* These little embarrasses we men of intrigue are eter-
nally subject to." '
" Was it for her, a girl of such an age,
To sit at home, eacpecting till a kinsman
Came, nobody knows whence, to marry her 1 " *
" Let us expostulate the matter with her." *
'^ Sir John, I understand, is removed into the country, nor dare ap-
pear to cross me." Theophilus Cibher, The Lovers Act 3. Also see Act 2.
*' Conversation was intended as a kind of traffic of mental com>
modities; but nobody now dare open their badget." Cohnan, Tf^
Gentleman, No. 4.
" Herod of Jewry dare not look upon you,
When you are in displeasure."
Henry Brooke, Antony and Cleopatra^ Act 3, Scene 2.
*^ Not a servant dare stay in his sight ; and even the innocent chaira
and tables, and everything that comes in his way, feels the effects of
his fury." Id., The CJiaritable Association, Act 1, Scene 6. Also see
The Contending Brothers, Act 2, Scene 8.
Also see Mrs. Inchbald^ The Midnight Sour, Act 1, Scene 1 :
James Eenney, Matrimony, Act 2, Scene 1 ; Thomas Dibdin, The
Birth-day, Act 2, Scene 3 : John O'Keeffe, The Farmer, Act 1, Scene
1 : George Watson, England Preserved, Act 4, Scene 2.
*< She was silent ; for, to rouse her tyrant was more than she dare
do." ** But she went into no trance : she dare not." Rev. Charles
Kingsley, Two Years Ago (ed. 1867), Vol. 1, pp. 214, 215, and p. 298.
" He dare not move." " The poor man . . , dare not come down."
Mr. Charles Reade, Hard Cash (ed. 1863), Vol. 1, p. 298 ; Vol. 3, p. 23.
^ Sterne, Letters, No. 71. This use of each for every, though com-
mon in Scotland and in America, is now un-English.
2 Richardson, Clarissa Sarlowe, Vol. 6, p. 363.
*' What is a grote or twaine to note,
Once in the life, for man and wife,
To save a pound, in house or ground,
Each other weeke } "
Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes, &c., Ch. 3.
Every other while once meant * every now and then *, for which we
once had ever now and then. See Udall, Apophthegmes, &c. (1642), fol,
160, 235, with The Preface of Erasmus [bis), and fol. 250.
3 Foote, T?ie Commissary, Act 2.
* Colman, The Comedies of Terence, &c., p. 260. » Id, ibid,, p. 326.
OUB qbahsfathers' exqlish.
" Aye, 't was a crying sin, to let such a spirited fine
young fellow be kicked out of iifa by a taacally little
femret." '
"The areas of the Greek temples were, in like manner,
in soma instances, floated with water." "
" Item, a pork-pie, a boiled rabbit and aauaagea, a Jlar-
entine, a shaking pudding," &c.*
" Both appeared quite Jljish, and confident of victory." *
"Master Jenkins, you have/o66ed me finely."'
" I fancy he will not be very fotid of prolonging Ha
" Are yoM fond of mB
Fnr sending you that music girl 1 " '
" I am told, that, even in this very room, a debtor of
his, no later than last year, died for want." ^
" You might have rumpled and crumpled, and doubled
' Tin. Cowley. More Ways than One, Act 4. 8pe!t /«wrrtM, the
won! ia used by Mies Carter anil Miss Talbot, Miu Carta' t Littari ta
Mill TalM, Ac, Vol. 2, pp, 176, 38i.
"'" R. P. Knight, An Accawd uf the Remaim nf thi Wm-nhip of
Priaput, &C. (ad. 1806), p. Si. Also bee Adiiiaon, Works (ed. 1730},
Vol. 2. p. 28 ; ShensbioB, Ltttms, No, 32.
> Goldaotitb, She Sloopi to Conquo', Act 2, Soeae 1.
* Honry Brooke, The Foot of Quality, VuL 1, p. 1*3.
" Foole, Tht KHighli, Act 2.
' Id.. The Nabob. f^aiZ. "Nor oould I be/*»rf that they should
tee you." Richardion, Clariaia Sarlawe, VoL 6, p. 376. "-Hmd of
marrying." Id,, ibid.. Vol. 1, p. la.
" Follow, and do not quit him, hut aeam/oni
To do him little oiHooa of service."
Olway, Tht Orphan. Act 3.
Also see Day, The Beggar' t Opera, Aot 3 : Mrs. Incbhald, Th»
Midnight Bow, Ant 3, Suene 1.
' Cplmnn, The Coinediei of Trrenef, &o., p. 101.
The /onii of Footo, tc, means ' deairuua ■ ; Colmati"s fond of sig-
niflefl ■ pleased with'.
•> Goldsmith, Thf riiar of Wahijield, Ch. 28. Yet we say ' died
for wont oi bread,' &o.
and oreaaed, and fretted and fridged the outside of them
all to piecee," '
"Why, I don't know, maater. The neighboura were
/rightful, and would not consent." '
" It ia no way derogatory from tho dignity of the crown,
or the safety of the public." ^
" And do not you think I should behave ver;- well, if I
was to discharge you my service 1 " *
"You know he was to dedicate his volume of fablea
to roe. So I gave him thirty pounds, to get my arras
engraved, to prefix, by way of print, to the froniispiece." *
' Stenie, Ti-iilfam Shandij. Vol. 3, CheptET i.
' Foote, Tlu Bivil upon Two SliclU, Act 2. Also see The Co\n-
mimanj. Act 3.
' Jolin wakes, The North Briton, No. 35.
* Mrs. Inehbald, Xtxt-doar Ncighbomt, Act 2, Scene 1. ' From '
is nneipresaed. »
' Poote, Tha Falrm, Aot 1, Scene 1, Finnlispicfc, used of a book,
formeTly denoted, Bs here, its ■ title-page '. Siehelet givee, as one of
tho meanings of fjf«.- "Le commeDcement, le /riHifiapiw d'lm litre."
Hie exemplification is : " Get autear a fait mettre son doid a la tSte de
son lirre."
" At the least, I am most coafident, tliat I should never suifei to
have mj name printed in the frontiipiece, or flral leaf of the book,''
Ac. The Ci'Mieal HiMory of li-meion (1686), Book II, p. 12,
Faller remarks on a epurious imprint of a cerlsiti edition of the
Bible : " Wliat can be expected from sn lying a frerttiipice, bnt snit-
able fakaboods, wbcrewith it aboundath ? " Mixt Conleniplaliiai, Ac.,
II., 9.
Still older instances ere seen in Mabbe, The Hopm (1623], Part 2,
Elogium, and p. 27. Also see Milton, Artopagitica, p. fiO (ed. l8IIS)i
Steele, Tht Gmrdian, No. 131.
In A IForld of Wimthri (1607), the bead of its "Epistle Dedica-
tone" is called /roBd^yiw. HakewUl, in An Apohgie, &C. (IBZO),
■tyloB bis title-page, in " Tho Argument " prefixed to itjfmit.
The term /rantiipim vtiia also used— as by HowpU (1G19). in bia
Fimiliar Letters (ed. 1713), p. 11,— of a house; and Bmthwait
applies it to the face. " Tee worthy women, who have no other device
but the dresse of vertne to beautHle your frmtupice," &o. The Ei\g.
(1.4 GtntlnnaB, ftc, (ed. 16il), p. ib\.
ODB GRANDFA.THERS ENGLISH. 23d
" Lord bless me, sir ! ivliy, there are such steams from
aavoury pies, sucli a.fumiilte from plump partridges and
roasting pigs, that I think I can distinguish tliem as
easily as I know a rose from a pink, or jonquil from a
cauliflower." ^
" There 's a little ragged boy at the hedge-tavem hard
by, where I baited my garran" fie."
"Whoever supposes that J^dy Austen's fortune is
precarious is mistaken. I can assure you, upon the
ground of the most circumstantial and authentic inform-
ation, that it is both genteel and perfectly safe." ^
" People who keep lodgings at public places expect to
gei hy every one who comes into tlieir purlieus."*
"1 have contracted to physic the parish-poor by the
great : but this must be a separate charge." *
" Round goes the grigkin again." "
" "Were we twenty miles nearer London, I might turn
higgler, and servo your Honour with cauliflowers and
broccoli at the best huiul." '
" But — but — you don't know — it [the pistol] may go off
of its own head." '
' Robert Jephioii, Tieo Slrinffi ta your Bow, Ast 1, Swaa 3. Also
sue GsrrUilc, A Peep it/tiad the Curtain, Act 1, 8aen« 2.
' Cuiuherland, The Jiatui-ul Son, Aot 2.
• Cowpar, Worki, Vol. 4, p. 133.
' Eiobacdson, Clariita Harlavx, Vol. 5, p. 17B. Grt lnj means
' oTerrefioh ■.
' Faote. The Xagor of Onrratt, Act 1, Scane 1. And bo in TAe
Snn/trupl, Act 3. Alao tto Steele, TAe Spectator, No, 22 ; Addkon,
Hid., No. fi05: T. Monro, Otla Fcdrida, No. 3.
" To let ontlliy harvest by great, or by day,
Let this, by expcrienoe, leude thus the vay.
Bi/ great wiU deceive thee, witli linking it out ;
Kyday will despatcb, and put nil nut of dout."
ThoTuaB Tiueer, Five Hundrilh fointti, ka., Ch. 4S, st. 8.
• Murphy, The Citicm, Aot 1, Scone 2. Aleo see I'lionma Dibdin,
Tlie Jev and Ike Dactur, Act 2, Scene 1.
' Cdwper, Works, Vol. 1, p. 19fi,
'Sheridap, ia»JiiBfl&, Acts, Scene 3. Alfiosee Adi\wsttOTii!i'i\«eiB,
334 CHAPTER TII-
"Mrs. WilUgooee's old hind, Stephen, was just gone
into the yard with a load of wheat." '
"I should be glad you would comply without a
quarrel." ^
" That zeal which ill men. are always ready enough to
exert in opposition to the faith once delivered to the
saints." '
" You may imnisrge it, replied he, into the ocean, and
it will Bland." *
" These, therefore, have need of the strongest argunients,
the plainest proofs, and the most eager rmportunacy, to
convince," &c. *
"In course, . . it must have been the owner of tha
chestnut, and no one else, who could have played him such
a prank with it." ^
TXj Tatlm-, No. 114 : Staple, ihid.. No. 188 ; Thf Si>ect«io,; No. 479.
" He resolved .... to do nothing of hii Dicn hrad, as wo use to
lay," &e. Hejlin, EeeUiin Viiidieata (16fi7), Part 2, pp. 354, 35B.
" Here ia a man who aaya nothing o/ Ml own head." Mr. Matthew
Arnold, LiifraUire mid Sogma (1878), p. 176.
' Graves, Tlw Spiritual Quixote, Vol. 2, p. 318.
* Mnrphy, All in tki Wrong, Act 4, Sceno 4. " Whatever he pro-
daoea .... I sball be glad you will, at any time, lend to me." Mias
Bumey, Cecilia, Book B, Ch. 8. " I shall bfl gUd yon will infonn me
of it." Cumberland, The Natural San, Aot 2. In these pasasged, if
ia omitted.
* Jonea, of Nayland, Tkenlogieal and XfiseeHaneoiis Worii, Vol. 1,
p. 279. " Ca^iaa was an ill man, himaelf." Bichardeon, CorreapoMd-
tntv, Vol. 6, p. 242. "Having kept company with ill women."
ManderiUB, TItr Fabh of tAs Bees (ed. 1724), p. 249.
Aleo aeo Addison, Tiie Freeholder, Ho. 45.
" Is Texas, the woid ill haa the carious signification of ' iminoral ' ;
and ' aA iVHellow ' meana 'a man of bad habits'. " Frof. M. Schela
De Vere, Ameriamimu, p. 493.
Why ' ' corious " ? Ill bore this signiflcation for centnriea.
* Bteme, SeiiUmental Journey, The Wig. Also see GraveB, The
Bpirilaal Quixote (ed. 1S20), Vol. 2, p. 3!0.
' Bishop Lnwth, Sermoni and Other Sjnnains, pp. 341!, 347.
' Sterne, Tiiitram Shandy, Vol, 4, Chapter 27, Al-o ace Krlly,
Omt GBAHDFiTHEKs' ENGLISH,
235
"It was file odd hamour of those days, for the women
to pride themselves in their chastity, as well as the mfen i«
their Taloiar," '
" Observation may convince ua that his power is now
IB the wane." »
" Ho has, sometimes, a striking line, or a shining parft-
graph ; but, in the whole, he is warm rather than fervid,
and shews raoro dexterity than strength." ^
" The first mention which I rememher to he made of
periwigs, in our English history, is in the account of
Prince Charies and the Duke of Buckingham's appearing
in disguise at a hall at Paris, in their way to Madrid." '
" Cecilia assented, without daring to look at her, and
followed, in trembling, up stairs." *
" I need not instance in more particulars,"'
" A valuable privilege is likewise indulged to graduates
in this faculty, by the statute-law of the kingdom," &o.'
Thi School for WiDtt, Act 2, Bofao 1 ; Mrs. Cowley, Mart Weyi thM
Ont, Act 2.
' Bishop Hiird, Moral and PoliUrai Dialogtiti (ed. 1760), p. 138.
Aliio see p. 289 ; and John WillteB, The North JlrHan, Ho. 16,
' John Wtlkss, TAt North Briton, No. ii.
• Dr. JohnajD, Ltfs qf Addiwi. Alao aee Anon., TAs Speetator,
No. 292 ; Horny Brookfl, Tki Fool of Quality, Vol. 2, p. Q3.
" There aro maaj othani of the Pealms which are, in tho whole, 0(
in part, very irregnlac in thU respect," Bishop lowth, Seraona and
Olhcr Simaini, p. 42fi,
* Graves, The Spiritual Quirois, Vol. 1, p. 141. "At Puns" ii
also here notioeable. '' 3he ooncludcd he wus in the ODitain road to
honour and profit." Miss Bumey, Cecilin, Book 3, Ch, 4. "Jh mj
wny to London." Sir WiUinin Jones, Memoin, &c., p, 21S.
" Mius Uumey, Ouilia, Book 6, Ch. 9.
■ Biehop Lowth, Bermoni and Other Rfmaint, p. 230. We should
B parliciilare '. Also b*b Jeremy Collier, A
Short Vim. &c. {«i. 1730), p, 273 : John Wilkes, The North Briton,
Moa. 2, B, 28.
' Bishop HdliCnx. An Analyni, &b.. Preface, p, 11,
" Fur his other duTiadons ftolc the art of writing. I rrsijin him to
erilical justice, without making any other demand, ia hU fwitiui^'ivAs.
CHAPTEB VII,
" Dili not ynu inform, liirn
Tlio hent of luy affiictioiisl " *
" But, when ... we gravely talk of finding oat
where lie inhubiis" &c.*
[ -." Why, the purpose of both is the same, to meet com-
pany; Hn't itl"'
" I shall make no stay here, but intend for some of the
Electoral Courts."*
" In the text, we find the interchangeahle providences
of God suited to the piety or wickedness of his people." *
" But there is a gentleman of no good character, an
inthnado of Mr. Lovelace, who is a constant visiter of
her,"^
" I had, indeed, the choice of being keeper of a pest-
house; but T was fool enough to withstand the offer,
and, all other trades failing, took into my present ser-
that which mast be indulged to all Immaa excellence." Dr. JotiDson,
Prc/aee to Shakespeare.
' Colman, The Comedies of Terente, 4o., p. 170.
' Sir JosbuB Bejnolda, Literart) WoTki, Vol. 1, p. 194. Alio see
Eialiop Lowth, SermoBsand Olher Remaini, p. 271.
' Foote, The Liar, Act 1, Sceoe 2. kaA eo BichBrdson, Pamela,
Vol. 4, pp. 95, 130: Sir CAariw Ormdison, Vol. 3, p. 266. Alao lee
Miia Bumey, EiieliHa, Vol. 1, Ch. 33 ; Vol. 2, Cli. 2 : Cecilia, Book
1, Ch. 8; BookB, Ch. 8", Eoolt 9, Ch. 1.
' ItiuhHrdEOD, Clarissa Barlws, Vol S, p. 3Sl.
And so Fianok has the verb aotive iHtend, fur 'intend ta go to '.
XortliiTH Memoirs (ed. 1694), p. 17S.
Daigafiir lisa, likeffiee, been used for ' design to go to '.
"Aselftoa design' d Jot ^ofXei the aame day.'' Wilson, Bumaby,
i:Co., The Works of T. Felranias Arbiter, &c. (ed. 1710), p. 20,
" My spirite bil me ; I am very low ; and I am designing for the
biith, aa my but resource," Dr. Young (1767). in Correspondtnet of
SichardsoM, Vol. 2, p. 40,
Also see Lord LansdoBrne, Tks Sht-galUmts, Act 1 : Oe Foe, Captain
SiagMoH (ed. 1840). p. 222.
' Bishop Lowth, Sirmans and Oilier Semains, p, 312.
' mchardaon, Clarissa Sarlowe, VoL 7, p. 359.
' CambBTlaad., The Ifatural Son, Act 3.
oca QItAin)7ATKBItS ENGLISH.
" I "11 on with mj jemmies. H^one of your black bags
md jack-boots for me." '
" Olivia would be drawn as an Amazon, sitting upon a
ok of flowers, dressed in a green Joseph," Ac. '
" Elesa me, Mr. Carmine, don't mind my shape this
Mut ; for I 'm only in Jumps. Shall I send for my
f his foot, may keep off the
lome, Sir ! ' ' Ay, ay, plump
" The fiend, with a jut a
J«ld," &c.*
" ' Did you fall, in going 1
f tn the kennel '." "
" But nothing could now exceed my confusion, upon
Beeiug the gentleman and his lady enter." *
" The lambs'-wool, even in the opinion of my wife, who
[ was a connoisseur, was excellent." ^
" Ton must know that I have .... a good many bets
t depending on the same hiy."^
" Harry let down the leaf of his hat, and drew it over
f his eyes, to conceal his emotions."*
" How much might she earn in a day, then, by her
I, Tii EngtUhuian <» Paris, Act 1.
_. mitli, Tlu VUar of If'akcfirld, Ch, 16.
I^Rote, IJjjte, Act 1. Byyiiwpi is meant "n sort of boddico, used
" Foots baa (oi^j/, for ' padding ', in The Kiiighu,
|.Act 2.
" Tight Blap, they find, oft end in hnnipB,
And take, too lato. alua i io jwnpa."
Colman, Fnei on Seutral Oeeaiioin, &c., Vol. 2, p. 30G.
Alio lee John U'Keeffo, Tkt Famur, Act 2, Scene 2.
* Miaa Barney, Cailia, Book 2, Ch. 3, » Id,, ibid.. Book 2, Ch. 9.
• Coldamith, Tho Vitar o/ Wakefitld, Oh. 19. Ako aee Mi«g
Bumey, Cecilia, Book 1, Ch. 7 ; Book 2, Ch. 7.
' Goldemitb, Tlw Vicnr of WaiiJUid, Ch. 1 1 . A beverage is here
intended.
" Colmon, TTu Qmiiii, No. 3.
■ Henry Brooke, Thi fkiol of Qualit}/, Vol. 4, p, 210.
" GraTis, Thri Spiritml Quixiits, Vol. 2, p, 255. Leasing here
eaiu 'gtoanins'.
CHAPTER VII.
" He was to lie that niglit at a neighbour's, to whoae
child fae was carrying a whiatle." ^
" Introduced ! I 'd aa lief he introduced to Old Nick." *
" I thought that had detected Love, that sly lurcher,
lurking under the mask of confidential." '
" I was led to trouble you with these obserratioiiB, by
a passage which, to speak in lutesiring, I met with, this
morning, in the course of my reading." *
" This fellow would turn rake and macaroni, if he was
to stay here a week longer." *
"The machine started within ft few miniitea of the
d; the coachman smacked hia whip," Ac*
' GoidBmith, Tht Vicar 0/ WaJuJield, Ch. 6. Also seo Misa Bur-
nej, Cecilia, Book 7, Ch. 8.
• Gen. Conwaj, Faiie AppeaTnncis, Act 6, Scene 1. " I haJ aa Here
ahe had lived." Shoridan. The Dueaiia, Act 1. Scene 3.
5 Foote, Tht Cotmers, Act 2.
Zurclitr, the name still borne by s. species of dog. is only another
form of luritr. Compsre riAwrcA and iiVA.jjofloi and puis. In East
Anglifl, aptrch for birds is called aperi. In its proper Bense.pwA
b'sB, howCTer, no etymological conneiion with, pn-eh. Vide tnfra, p.
2*8. ' Letters of Jimira, No. 48.
s Garriclt.Bun r™, Act I, So. I. Aleosee Misa Bnmey, Cieid'a, Book
l,Ch.8; Books, Cb.3: Jirs-Co-n'm, JVho'al:HeI>Hpe?,AiA2,Be.2.
" There ie, indeed, a kind of animal, neither male nor (emale,
a thing ef the neater gender, lately started up amopget ns. It it
called a imwarDni." Colman (1770), .^Vow on Van'aua Occajnoiu, fa.,
Vol. 2, p. 88. AiflO see Vol. 3, p. 190.
" Sontiiej, Etprielli^i Zelf^t from EnglaHd,Vo\. 2, ff.iS,n\. Ma-
ehinehett: meona 'coach'. Also see Colman, The Qetiiia, Noa. 3,
B; lirrte JVd'Mj, No. 3: Misi Carter, ZsWi^rj to Mri. Mciitaga, Vol.
1, p. 391 : Barkfl, Catrtapeiidence, Vol. 1, p, 372,
Diligenei, also, was the name of an English coach, with those who
called it a miahini. " I enclose a line to Johnson, to tell him, that, if,
in the mean time, a»d while you are absent from town, another parcal
o[ the proof should be toady for revisal, 1 wish him to send it hither
bythe diligimef." Cowper (1781), Worii, Vol. i, pp, 103, 103.
Siligmee was ahortened, loo. " Forlii. 1 did not come on horse-
back, HT. AbM. In the dilly, perhaps t Tliey are
now." Qea. Conway, Fain Appiaranefi, Act 2.
OCR GSAMDFATHBaS' EH^JSH.
" Tbe actions, aentimenta, conversation, of the Leroea
and heroines of aacient days were as unnatural as the
macltines employed to put them in motion." '
" A draught of ale, friend j for I 'm main dry." '
" Away, you malapert I Your frowardness
Had well nigh been my ruin." '
" On going up Snow-Hill, I observed n pretty many
people assembled," &c*
" He did not matter cold nor hunger." ^
" This roused the tinker's choler, already provoked at
Tngwell's amorous freedom with his doxy ; and he gave
him a clinic in the mazui'd." *
" In the next place, his method of stating a medium
of aix years of war, and six years of peace, to decide
this question, ia altogether unfair."^
" I have a melalline mirror, found in Herculaneum,
which is not above three inches square." ^
" We shall finish this chapter with a few miscdlany
observations." *
' Horace Walpole, The CiatU of Otranto, Preface to tliB eecond
Bdilion. Wb slionlcl now say inaehinery.
' Podte, The Kmghts, Act 2. Alao SM fiickerstaffe, The Maid of
the Mill, kct 1, Scene 1.
' Colman, Tin Comtdiei of Tirenet, Sx., p. 195.
* Miea Carter, £etta-t to Mia mbet, &t. Tol. 3, p. 186. " A
prett; muHy milfa." Cumberland, Tha Xatural Sat, Act 2. "A
pretty many yMrs." Id., ibid.. Act 2; Ths Weit Indian, Act 2,
Scene 3. Also see Richardson, Famila, Tol. 2, p, 2S6.
» Hsnry BnwlM, Tht Fool of Qmlils, Vol. I, p. 91. It cocura
often in tliii work, ta in YoL 1, p. H9, &e. &c. Also lee Franclc.
JTorthcm Memoir, (ed. 1694), p. 157 : Eichardson, C/ora.o Harlowi,
Vol. 2. p. 65; Vol. i, pp. 171, 229; Vol. 6, p. 163: Sir Charh,
OrandiKH, Vol. 7, p. 07.
' GrsTCi, The Spiritual Quixote, Vol. 1, p. 164.
' Burke, Oittrvatient m a late ' State of the Nation '.
* Bisbop Lowth, Iteiah (ed. 1778), Notes, p. 68. Also we Dr. John-
n, THb Rnmbkr, No. 9,
■ Jam«B Hartia, Srttn» (ed. 1771), p. 257.
CHAPTER VII.
" Aa Mr. Biirchell bad hinted to us, the day before,
that he was making proposals of morrioge to Miss Wil-
mot, my sou George's former mistress," &c.'
" We must sometimes gratify the mobih." *
" What mockado ia this to such a poor soul as I ! " '
" I have a mart to communicate to you on different
" After drinking half a pint of mountain together at
the next tavern, we finished our contract." '
"Don't you give yourself any trouble about their
mutining." '
" When thus a mutton, statelier than the rest,
A ram, the ewes and wethers sad addressed."'
" The priiioessea then revealed to Hippolita their
mutual inclination fur Theodore," ifec*
' GoldBmith, The Vifar of Wakefiehl, Ch. 7.
» John wakes, Tht North Mriloii. No. 24.
' Riclianiaon, Famela, Vol. 2, p. 37-
* Sterne, LeUem, So. 130. Add Eichardson, Pamela, Vol. I, p.
11 : Biekerstaffe, Love in a VUlai/e, Act I, Scene fi : Sheridan, Tht
Sicalf, Act 1, Scene 1.
i Gnnes, Tlie Spirit.ua! Qiiixolf, Vol. 1, p. 7. See Mm. Suaanna
Cendivro, -d Bold Stroke for a W^e, Act 3.
" Why, Nuraaliul!, that 's nothing. Her ladyship's wins
All otei the TiUage runs jual like a fountaia ;
And I heard the folks aay, everj dinh, when thej* diDe,
Will he summing' in claret, madeira, and tHountain,"
Charlea Dibdin, The Deserter, Act 1, Scene 1.
< Charles Johnson, Cliryaal, Vol, 3, p. 81,
' Cowper, Wnrki, Vol. 10, p. 40.
a Horace Walpole, Tbi Caitlt of Olraiilo, Cb. 4.
Dr. Johnson, defining mutual bj " reciprocal, each acting in return
or correspondence to the other," quotes two pauages prorisBcdly in
e^empliflcation of this dafinition. The iirst is from Shakespeare, who
aaya that the cattle of a herd " make a maluiii stand," on hearing the
sound of a truiopet. The second ia from Pope ; " a mutual flame,"
between two persons. But, as to the fiiit, how can a, "stand" be
" recipmesl ". save by interrelation to another "stand"? What
Bceond " stand " is contemplated, " acting in return or currespondenoa
to " the one laeiitioned ? It is not from reciprocation tliat the " stand "
" The inuleteGr, . . . entering into a long conversation,
how he waa chief gardener to the cunvent, . . . and as
tukea place, but because of the trnmpet'a ucting on the cuttle conjointlj.
A second dEfinltion ia, tharotara, rflqnictd, ta cuter tha mutual uf the
paasBge in question. And tho sense wblch it has there, though now,
eicept in Scalland, a Tiilgarism, once was re^y cuirtnt.
" But aeithec bath a lot any pover of it selfe, neither can any man
by bis owne will, or many men by their mutuall consent, g[ve any
such power unto it, as," Ac, Thomas Gatultcr, 0/ the Nature and
Ua of Lot/ (ed. 1327), p- 360. Also see pp. 73, 91.
"Those dnnghtersof SoedusuBof Leuctra, .... conceiving nmvluaH
sorrow far tlioir lost tirginily, became resolute actors in their owne
tragedy." firathwait, The Buylith thntltman, &c. (ed. 1641), p. 341.
*' No miIhco could transport them so highly, nor eeuxe un them eo
bot)y, whcreio, with joint ulTections, they did not partalce tiiiilHallj/,
and which, with a rertuous temper, they ailsycd not mildly." ///.,
i&id., p. 405.
" The inconveniences of an unequal yoak, or marrying of It Christ-
ian with an infldel, were innumerable : the tacicty and conrersetion
could not be so muiital between them ; the Chiielian woman vould not
keep those ooiTciipondenees which were of the interest of her religion; "
&c. Hamon L'Eatrange, The Allianw of Mvins Qgteei (1(169), p.
292.
" Whereas I always stay till the parties , . , are malnally desirous of
an agreement." FuUer, JWixt CaiikmjilatioHs, (ci:., II., 12.
"There the soldier, tJte tradesman, the merchant, .... have laid
aside their names of distinction, and calmly cunspir'd in a imitUBt
agreement of kbora and desircB. " Bp. Sprat, The Sistary of thi
Soyai Society, &c. (ed. 10<!7), p. 427.
" Eren the torments of the damned . . . will receive a vast accession
of misery end woe from the mufHaJ weeping, and wailing, and gnash-
ing of teeth." Bentley, IF'-rii, Vol 3, p. 276.
" The intimate connexion which I have had with the Boyal Academy
ever since its establishment, the social duties in which we have all
Mufuif/y engaged for so many yean,'' &c. Bir Joshua Keynoh^,
lilfraiy Tori*, VoL 2, p. 181.
"Our mutual friend, John Banilie." Burke, Corrmpatulfna!, Vo).
2, p. 2fil.
Sterne, Con, has the expression " mutual friend." See his ITiirti
(ed. 1810), VoL 4, p, 169. Also see The Ear! of Corke, r^ U'lirlii.
No. 47; Colinun, in Thn Prirate CorrttptmilniM of Ilarid Oan-ki,
" , Vol. I, p. 211: Cumberland, ibid.. Vol. I, p. 381; Thomus
Dibdia, T/ie Jfie and Ih' lioanr, Act 2, Bcenu 1.
16
ae, Mr. Benjnmin Diarueli Itaa wcitlcn of " their
' Zothair, Cii. 12.
a once felt to be ambiguous opppari from Iho way it
iBlifi»l. " Tberc is a miUiiat reciprocal correspand-
cnoo." Biiihop Andienes, Ninety-»ix Scrmani (ed. 1B41— 1844), ToL
1, p. 3D5.
WilliBm Wabbe, in 1686, nsed mut-aitl for 'alteniflte'. " Jrutuall
it kinde h cnJlsd a round, beeing nuluallie
singetb one rerae, tlie other the next; eohe
j1 IHtcoiTie of Eagliih PoetTie, in Aneirtat
Critienl Emoyi, ka.. Vol. 2 (181S), pp. S4, 69. Also Bee pp. 64, &c.
Felthnm has inlenmaual, mtermutmlly, and intermiilualiieii, Se-
wolva, &c. (ed. 162S), Seeonil Centnrie, pp. 49, 197, 244.
The BuliJDined anoinaloiu uses bIbo deserve notica
"The eipense of children may, possibly, be urged as an objectioii
to this sflheme. But I anawer, that children will, of necea^ty, come,
■whether our baUad-ainging ladies are marriad, or not; and, while the
mHfually tratelling with the younger at their hacliEi, the
all probability, be abls to walk." Anon., T>ie World,
interposition."
Bnng hetweene t<
rymelh with himaetfe."
lutHnUs travelling " is for ' travelling in one and the «
parents a:
elder will,
No. 149.
"Tha mutual fear of the Captain's resentment to me. and nf hec
own to him, neither of which would have any moderation, deterred
me." Misa Buroflj, Evilina, VoL 2, Letter 9.
For other bad naeB, hy Misa Bumey, of mutual and mutually, aee
hor acilia, Book 1, Ch. 3 1 Boot 6, Ch. 7 ; Book 6. Ch. 1 and 4.
Nor would one, now-a-dayi, write, witbont liability to reproof, as
Southey writes : "I have always admired thai passage in the Iliad,
where Diomede and Glancua meet in battle, and torn aside by mutual
consent.'' Vind, Etel. Atigl., p. £24. Compare the passage from
Grataker, given above.
Though Mr. Dickens wrote Our Mutual Friend, and not at nil with
any intentioa t^ accredit tbe expression whicb he chose for his title,
he had used a similar expression in sober earnest ; and, in the collective
edition of his works, he Ivt it pass.
" But he now regretted it the less, inasmuch as it afforded him an
opportnnity of aoknowledi[ing, before llieir mutual frimds, tliat ho
loved Mr. Woidle's daughter deeply and Bincerely," &(!. Fickieiek
(ed. 186fl),p. 478. " h mutual in^iii." Iiid.,-p. 343,
Dr, Webster's editors teaoh as follows r " Oommcn is applied to that
which belongs alike, or in eomtnoti, to the parties concerned ; as 'our
anmnon cotintry', 'a common friend'. JJiifuHi impliea tin inttrehtrngt
wliat a nation of Iicibs he had procuryJ, to niollifj- licr
humour," &c.'
"Misa, he 'a so near, it's partly a, woniier how he lives
at all." »
" It [the acanery] Tieighhoiirs nearly, am! aa nearly
reserablcB, the scenery of Uatfield ; bat with what differ-
ent perceptions does it present me ! " '
" As for that, I don't want friends, neither, I belioye." '
" Adelaide . . opens a clothea-pteaa, takes from her head
a hood, scarf, and night-rail," &c.'
" She noddled her head, waa saucy, and said rude things
to one's face," *
" He mentioned a thousand copies as a iiumeroii-a im-
preasion." '
of Clie tiling Epokcn of between the purtiea; aa 'Mutaal friendship '.
Henee, lo epeik ot'amutual friend' {aa if a IViflnd could be inter-
vhongud) is a grou irrar; icbile it is proper tu epenJc of haTin^ 'a
mutual desire ' to promate tbe intcTeatt of ' a eominnH friend ', or those
of "onr common conntry',"
Mutual, vre are here told, denotes ' interchange '. If so, how, un-
less inlereltangi denolei ' cummunity ', can there be a mutual doiiire to
promote the interests of a country ? For it la nut impb'ed that the
country responds to a dciire liko that of which it is the objecL
' 8temG, Trislnm Shandy, Tol. 7, Ch. 21. "Lunnun is a naatioH
rum plaia." "This made me noad'on riled." auu't Trip to London
(Norwich, 1871), pp. 6, 9. Here the word is an adverb.
» Misa Bumej, Cteilia, Book 2, Ch. 9. " I am not a near man.
neither; but, as to giving at that rale, it 's quite out of chsrscter."
Iii., ibid.. Book 9, Ch. 1. This near is ' peuurioUB ', The jwicWy in
the first quotation seems to be oddly equivalent to ' lUtogether '. Such
a use of the word, in tbe speech of tbe illiterate, onee was very common.
A'cnr. as used aboie, is old. See Mabbe, The Sogiu (1623), Part 1,
p. 107.
» Cowper, Wiirku, Vol. 3, p. 219.
* Mti. luohbald, I HI TeU yiiu W&at, Act I, Scene 3.
> John O'KeslFe, Thi Frimna' at Lvrge, Act 1, Scene ti. Again in
Act 't. Scene 1, and Act S, Scone 2.
< Gmves, The Spirilml Quicotn, YuL 1, p. 222.
1 Dr. Jolinion, Lifeuf F"pe. " They would, in any iiumwuk* mIidoI,
liavD obtained praise, but not excited wonder.'' Id., Life of Miltm.
" Plantna, in his richest vein of humour, is mimeroits
and poetical." '
" Hark ye, David ! Take this mummy into the cellar,
and wet hia dust with a cup of October." '
" Mra. Burke has not profited of the hathing." *
" The mind which has feasted on the luxurious wonders
of fiction has no taste of the insipidity of truth." *
" Safe, and, nf conaeiiuence, toM as Dymoke, he has no
enemy hut himself to comhat." '
" Ah, Mrs. Graves, said I; I fear you have had a very
troublesome guest of me." ^
"Adam's diacourae of dreams seems not to he tlic
speculation of a new-created being," '
" I have never set eyes of her once." *
" His motlier was now better, and had taken pity of his
Bospense and impatience," &c.^
" Here, my Lord, you have fortune vf your side," '"
" Oh, plague af your obedience ! " "
> Colmsn, The Comediei of Terence, &o.. Preface, p. 4.
• Comberlanil, The Natural San, Aot 3. Ocloier signifies ' eider '.
And see Hetity Brooke, The Fool uf Quality, VoL 6, p. 110.
' Burke, Bpiiiolary Corretpan^iiee of Bitrhs and Dr. Zaureiue, p.
5T. Also see p. 186 ; and Corretpondmtot, Vol. i, p. 422.
* Johnson, Preface to SAakeipeare.
= John WilkM, Tis Narth Mritua, No. 1. Also me Cowper, Thr
Cowioiamr, No. 134.
' Henry BrooliB, The Fool of Qiiality, Vol. 1, p. 240. " Ah, Snin.
Sam, 1 ham had a heavy loaii of you, since I parted with you to
that yonng rogue of a omstBr." Id., The Marriiu/e-eontriKt, Act 'J,
Scene 1. " It ib true, Madam, you have not the luckiest partner of
me." Anon., The Mume«r> of m>ia (ed. 1743), p. 42, "Mr.
Munckton vill really have s great loss of her, when she diei."
Misa fiuraej, Ctcitia, Book 1, Ch. 6.
1 Dr. Johnson, Life of Milton.
" Foote, T^ Commiaary, kaX 2, Scene I.
<■ MiBB Burney, Cecilia, Book 10, Ch. a.
1" letleri nfjuniia. No. 11.
" John O'Keeffa, The Pi-ieoner at Largr., Act 2, Scune 3,
OtIR GBAiniFATHERs' BNOLISH. 245
' " Even he, with aU his penetration and esperienee,; — 0/
wliioh old folta generally pique themselves, — couid not
perceive his drift." ^
" Then let a musician he admitted 0/ the party." *
" Yet it cannot be said, that his genius is ever unprovided
0/ matter, or that his fancy languishes in [lenury of
" He remitted of his assiduity." *
"Maaon is in Yorkshire now; but I missed 0/ him,"'
" They dun't value damnation of a farthing." "
" Mr, Whitfield then conducted Wildgooae ... to seve-
ral different people, .... who were for the independence
not only of each congregation on other churches, but of
every individual on each other." ^
" Every right action is registered in Heaven, and there
remains, independent on the wrong uses that may be made
of it by those for whose benefit it was designed." ^
" I was struck all oh a heap, for my part." ^
" H''' llock will never be persuaded, that such an one
' Slome, Zttleri, No. 129.
' Cowper, JForks, VoL 6. p. 111.
"Wu also use of, inBteiul of uu ur upon, in tbs fuUoniag familiac
plirasGi, wliicb ovcur nliiefly in uunvcreution : 'tu cnll of a person',
anil 'to wait ^lum'." Prieetle^, The Jludiimmti of English Gram'
niar, £c,p. 07.
Of these use> of 1/ 1 am not nappUed witli ioutuuces from books,
' Dr. Johnmn, Lift of Drydim.
< Gbarles Jobriton, CAiyiat, Vol 1, p. 252.
» Graj, Jf'wit, Vol 3, p. 303.
' Foole, The Habab. Aol 2. "For my part, I value none of ilic
modem fusliiuns of a Sg-loat." Mrs. Susnnnit Ctntlivri:, A Buld
SIroktfora Wifi, Act S,
1 Graves, T/a Spiritual Quixote, Vol. 2. p. IB.
• MisB Carter, Ltilirrt tv Mrt. Montagu, Vol. 1, pp. 133, 134.
Also KB JotiiUDD, XaiKia; Ch. 38; llawkEvwortb, T/« Adnnturer,
No. ID.
■ Siii'ridiu), Tht Duima, Act 2, Scene 2.
246 CHAFTEB vn.
sets himself o« work, either out of Iotb to them, or hatred
to sin." ^
" Besides, it is the on/iext metliocl to keep her to one's
Belf.-^
" It has a kind of oratarial number or measure." '
" Being all outlireafhed in turns, they remitted frona
their toil." *
" My lord's servants call you an old oui-of-fasJdoned
codger, and have taught me what 's what." *
" The cose, as here described, is similar to that of the
bag of &pair of lagpipes" &a.^
' Eiatop 'Warburton, A Scltction, &c., p. 351,
' Foote, A Trip lo Calait, Aot 1. " It is the oHJieit waj to rise ia
the worii" "In short, it ia the onliest liquor of Ufa." Jd., Tki
Oralort, Acts 1 nod 3.
Thera is an old uaa of on/j/ which I am unnhle to eieraplKy at flrat
hand. " Id eonvcraation, I do not say the most polite, wo Bometinies
hear the word aalyf wbich ia a duninutive, joined to tha superktire
degree; aa 'He is onl;/ the cleverest fellow I ever saw'." Priestley,
The Sudimentt^ &c., p. 67. Compare aloHe, tor ' out and out ', spoken
of in note Q to p. 46, tupra.
■ Bishop Lowth, leaiah, Pretiminarj' LiEEertatioa, p. 2, Also see
"Warton, Tie JrfwiKHW, No. 105; and Henry Brooke, The Fool of
Qualily, Yal. 2, p. 92.
* Henry Brooke, Tht Foul ef Quality, Vol. 1. p. 20B.
' Garrick, Sim Tan, Act 2, Beene 1. This odd compound aoems to
hnva had a oertain vogue for more than a sinxle generation. See
Gay, Folli/, Act 2 ; Warburton, Tracts, &c.. p. 104 : Fielding, Zo»»
in Senrnl Maapies, AL*t 3, Scene 5. In the game play, Ad 4, Scene
2, Fielding bus out-tif-fathion.
■ Godwin, An Enquiry, &«., p. 319.
Dr. John Nott, in hia edition of TJib GulTs Moriiboot, reniarka:
" Whererer I hare seen the word virginai or eirginale occur, it hai
always heen spoken of as une instniDient, and eiplainod a^ a smaller
sort of apinet. Decker is the Hrst writer I hare met nith n-ho nien-
tions a pair of virginale. It only proves that we have but n:
feet knowledge of the Initrament."
The inference that a pair of rirffliuih waa a double iustr
ha»ty. I might qnotc paisnges from old sutburs, for a pai
' ID to ieada, earda, thapUti, yalluvli, anil eryans.
r./. •
OUK aRAHDFATHBBs' ENGLISH. 247
" The only reUirn lie received , . . was a Email pension
for liimaeli^ and a pair of colours in the Guards for me." '
'' He saw his friend begin to palate his wino with
" Damn the city 1 I wish the papitAes would set firo to
it again." '
" I have two French printe hanging in my study, both
on Iliad sulijects; and I have an English one in the
parlour, on a subjisct irora the same poem." *
" Lady Euelle . . . had been something parUciilar, as I
fancied, in her behaviour to me," "
" ' But tell me ', continued Mr. Fenton, 'were there any
prisoners of consideration among the confined debtors 1 "
' A few, sir, of note, and many who had been well to pa^
in the world.' " ^
' ChvlEs JdhtiGon, Chrytal, Vol. 1, p. 156.
' Id., Hid., Vol. 4, p. 204.
■ Hurpby, The Citizm, Act I, Scene 2.
"And tbey My ha 'a a papM, too, forsooth." Cowley, Cutler- of
Ceieman-itriet (1663), Act 2, Sienu 8. J'apM ia tor pajji'sf.
" Ferhnps I was once a paplnh ; but, since tliat, like most of the
worlil, I 'm converted to no religion at nlL" Viaoount Grimatone, Tlit
Laii'ffer't Forlunr, Act 3, Scene 4.
Also aea Steele, T/te Taikr, Ne. 31 ; Graf, Worki, Vol. 2, p. 83 :
GravM, Tht Spirilml QHixote, Vol. 1, p. IBS ; VoL 2, pp. IS, 140.
It is not much more than k aatUaj aince the old papalin fell out of
use. It is employed by Biahop Larinf(tDn, in The EHthuHOtm of
Mtthodiiii OKi TapiiU eonpartd {\lil),^f. 183, 33S, 3d3 (ed. 1833].
Our old poptUiig, liko papalin, was tnknn, doubUesa, from the Italian
' Coirpcr, fForki, Vol. 7, p. 7. In Englmid, people who baye a
dniwing-room do longer call it aparleur, as they called it of old, and
till rocenilr.
• Gravoa, Tht Spiriluai Quitate, Vol. 2, p. 80. The signification of
particular, m tbia paagage, ia 'marked' or 'peculiar.' Also see Foote,
I!** Engluhman Sttmnidfivm Paris, Act 1, a/ijii.
~ J Brooke, Tht Foot «f Qualifn, Vol; S, p. 84. See Mabbe.
«, Part 1, p. itSl ; and Cr. Honibeck, in Saddueimtu Tri-
It (fid. 1T27J, !>. 4i)S.
CttAFTBK VII.
been at it passing a couple
n the top
I long
"Why, I 1
months," iJfec,^
" To be sure, your peaeJung them, who first drew them
in, is not so very just." "
'■The prim Bquut clump is peA-ed up exactly o
of every eminence," '
" I wtts petted nt their neglect of us during <
iHnesa."*
" The Callender, right glad to find
TTJH friend in merry pin,
Ketumeii liim not a single v/ocd,
But to the housB went in." *
" To hear a sweet goldlinch's sonnet,
This morning I put on my bonnet,
But scarce in the meadow, pixe on it I
When the captain appeared in my view." ^
" I love to pleasure my friends." '
"The extracts will be aa plenty — and as valuable — as
blackberries." *
" In a great plurality of examples, I trust he will Tae
perfectly convinced, that no design or contrivance whatever
has been exercised." '
' Foote, r*< Cammiiaarg, Act 2.
' Cbarlea Johnson, Chrgial, Vol. 1, p. 167. Fiach — in many
aldiih books written 'peaeh, — is a ehortening of apftaeh. Compare
ptrt, from aptrl,
> Uvodale Frioe, An Eiaay m the FietWftqiie, &c,, p. 215.
' Henry Biooke, TKt Fool of Quality, Vol 2, p. 46.
' Cowper, Worki, Vol. B, p". 309.
' O'Keeffe, Th« Rtrmir, Act 1, BaenH 2. "Wliat a pan!"
Richardson, Sir Charle* Grandvan, Vol. 6, pp. 179. 298, jcc.
' Foote. The Fatrtm, Act 2, Seene 2. I have hj ma siinilnr eitraoM
from Colman, Murphy, &c. Lord Macaulay, in our own time, hat
attempted, but rainly, to revire this old use of the verb pltaiarc, lot
■ favom' ', ' accommodate '.
" T. J. Mathiue, The Fitriuiti of Lilrraturt, Note on I.. 227.
* Puley, Hora Faulina, Ch. 1. A» in this eilraet, jiluralily •tat
long used where we should use myorilff.
"You will always, said lie, be getting a power of
money." '
"I am jealous of Edmund's j«-e/e)-a6?e regard for you."*
"Even Mrs. Delvile evidently desired her ataence;
Biuce, whenever the journey was talked of, she pre/erulli/
addressed herself to any one else who was present." *
" Sir George prev&iU every wish. He must make tho
best of husbands." *
" Ho beareth a very profligate character as to women, . .
and ia Mr, Lovelace's more especial privado." '
" You, Lord Mansfield, did not understand me so ; and,
Ipromke you, your case requires an abler defence." *
' Heary Brooke, The Fool of QnalUi/, Vol. 1, DedicBtion, p. 20.
Also sec Eithardaon, Pamela, Vol. 1, p. 48 ; Vol, 3, p. 9 : Murphy,
The UphaUteftr, Aot 1, SciBB 3 : Gray, Wurkt, Vol. S, p. 113 : Fred-
eric Philon, St teould 6« a Soldiff, Act 1, Sc«no 1 : Mrs. Qodwin,
Paithumoiu Werki (1798), Vol, 3, p. 17.
' Miss Clara Reere, The Old Englith Saron, p. 143. Richardson
nboandi irith this un of preferebti.
= MisB Barney, Ceeilia, Bpuk fl, Ch. B. Also see Rieliarclaon, Sir
C/iarhi GrandiKH, Vol. 2, p. 136.
' Mrs, Inohbnld, Nrxl-door Nfiyhiaiiri, Act 1, Scene 1.
* RichordBon, Clariaa Sarloiee, Vol. 7, p. 369.
° ZtitfM ef JuHiiH.Na. fiS. "He must hove mere striking fealnrM
la catch TM, I promiae you.' ' Goldsmith, She Slaopi lo Cmtqiur, Act
1, Scene 1. Also eee Garriclc, Iftck or A'oihitii/, Act 1, Scene 1 :
(lolmaii, I5e Snglith XerehaHl, Act 3, Scene 1; Act 5, Scene 1.
Fifty more references might be added.
Nor is this ase of modem origin.
•' ' Wall,' qnotU he, ' I promia yoa I, for my pnrto, hod lieffer lo
hce theflrator tbechtefm&n here, then thesecoode monno in Ruome '.''
Udall, Apophthigiruii, (ca. (1542), fol. 267.
" And >o 1 commit you to yonr auppsr, and myselfc lo my litter ; for
Ifireinueyou I am not a little weary with gambolling this al'lemooae."
Manieciu Eitatieat (1695), p. 20 (ed. ISta).
" Wit. 1 am Dontoat. Bat do you heare me, sir ?
Did not Sir Raph Smith asko ye for a wench i
Phil. No, I pnmite thee ; nor did he looke
For any bat thy selfe, as I could gcaae."
Henry Porter, TAi Tieo Aiip-is B'oMwn.ic. (Ifl99),p.37(ed. 1841).
" Although that, in the time of day, it is wana enough at Kaou^
" Good morniiig t' ye, Doctor. Doctor Feelove,
moming. How are your pulne to^laJ■ 1 " '
" Mrs. Talbot ia pure well, and really hears up Burpris-
ingly." *
"He has picked up again 'purely, since hia misfor-
tune," &c.'
"I must humour this old ind, in order to be remember-
ed in hia will." *
" I think a gentleman ought not to pid vp tamely one
or two severe thinga that the Colonel has said." ^
" Don't go to put upon a silly ohl man," ^
" And there he told me I was to run, and to double and
quat ; and there he was to catch me, and all that." '
" Mrs. Mechlin haa reason." '
yet the nighta, I proinUf jou, are vary poM and Terv unfrifindly."
Tie Cmxical Siitory of Francioa {1055), Book 12, p. 37.
" 11 tuus aime de tunt Eon c(ear,y« vuua U proweu." Tbis eipres-
non is ceaaored b; M. Wey, Eemarqiut tttr la Langm FrantoiM, Vol.
> Mrs. Cawlojr, Mart JFsyi t)uai On), Aat I. Butjiu/w, as a plural,
ia of renerable age.
"He could aote nothing; m, bj littla and little, hee conanmEdaway ;
and, aftar joma/ew ;>ii?s, be died." Mabbe, ISe Sujkb (1623), Part !,
p. 22.
' Miaa Jeffries, Miii Carler'i Leltera to Miis Talbol, Ac, Tol. 8, p,
19S. Also ace Kichordaon, Pamela, Vol. 2. p. 76.
• Gray, Curreipotiiiaici of Gray and itaton, p. 288.
• Mucphy, ThrM JFkIu AJtsr Marriags, Act 1, Scene 1.
' Bicharduon, Clarina Sariavii, Tol. 7, p. 310. And ao in PBtnela,
VdL 2, p. 291.
8ee, fnrtber, AddiMn, The Tatler, No. 93.
" She's the quietest woman that ere I knew ; for, good heart, she '11
pill vp anything." Dekkec, Chcttle, and Hsughton, Faliml Qriail
(IGD3), Act 3, Scene 2.
Compare do ainay, spoken of at p. 267, infra.
• Biekerstaffe, The Maid uf the Milt, Aet 3, Scene 3.
' Foote, Tht Author, Aut 2. See Mabbe, The Eogiu, Part 2, p.
: 1. Also
: The Lmna
OUR OBASffiFAmESS' BSGLBH.
" What, you are a courtier, I reekoiu No ■wonder you
■wJBh the press was demolished." '
" He is a very licentious translator, and does not reeom-
peme his neglect of the author by beauties of his own." '
" No time should be lost. So get away, and furnish
yourself immediately with a regimeidaK You must be
very smart and fashionable." ^
" When the light of the Gospel was relumined by the
Eeformation," &c.*
" I hope, dearest madam, you are eq^ually careful to
fepomt proper memorials of all that happens to you and
your family ; and then, when we meet, we shall tell our
stories," *
" Unnumbered and imperceptible chints, fissures, and
crannies of our rimoae and rimpled carcassea," &c.^
" In the last list, I presumoj you roll I "''
" The Misa Flaraboroughs . . . undei'stood the jig and
the roundabout to perfection." '
" I was . . three times in the round-house," *
" On the second day, hia brown horse, Orator, took
I rust, ran out of the course, and was distanced." '*
" What Mr. Lovelace saw of the hoU8e,^which were
f the saloon and the parlours,— was perfectly elegant." "
' Foole, Tht Bankrupt, Act 3. This ubb o( reekon is r«rj oommon
with Fogte. Also sec Jsmes Eesney, Raiting the Wind, Act 1, Scene
! : Cowper, Warkt, Vol, *, p. 130.
' Dr. Johnson, Lift of Stepney.
' Gen. Cunway, FaUe Apptaraneei, Act 3, Scene 2.
I * Bishop Lowth, Sermant and Olhtr Sitaaini, p. 168.
> Johnson, Liller to Kn. Tkmk, Sept. 30, 1773.
« LeyceBter, Olla Fodrida, No. 19.
' Foote. Tht Liar, KiA 1, Scene 1. Soli here signifioa 'bo
enrolled '.
» Goldamilh, Tht Viearof mkefield, Ob. 9.
" Foole, The Minor, Act 1, Soene I. .'Raaud-hoiue is one of the old
words for ' look-up ',
" ColfflBD, The aentleman. No. S.
" Eiehanlagn, Ci!nri'«oBi(rto«;i', Vol. 3, p. 352, The "best drawing-
CHAPTSfi VU.
" K I fine them for their irreguIoritieB, it shall Ije in a
much more moderate sum than forty Hhillings, ur any other
seonce imposed by the proctors." ^
" [She] paid my bill the next week, without sconcing
o£f sixpence."^
" He cried, I will, I will once more seeft to my God." ■
" But Sir James Melvil was too well seen in courta to
have used this language, if he had not undeistouil it would
be welcome." *
" It is like those poisonous wild gourds which, being
f/ired amongst other wholesome herbs," &c.^
"If we offer up a petition to a temporal prince, we do
it ia aa few, honourable, and mgnificative worda aa the thing
will bear." ^
room' is here meant hj lahon. Also see Colmon, Thi Oeiitfoinim,
No. 6.
Mr. Marsh writes of "all gradaa ot sooietj-, from the wignitmto
tbe ialoBH ", and of making " books and joumala speak the dlaleat at
the taloon ". Leelurei on t/tt English Langnagt, pp. 291, 440. In
England, hair-dreasers haTB their sbIoohi ; and there are, also, hiliiird-
ittlooni, la:, &e. Hut I do not know wbere, among English -spsoking
people, lalaon is the name now giren to any roam in a pricaU house.
' Colman, Tm-a Filiiu, No, 1.
< Foote, 7^ Dan! upon Two Stkka, Act 2, Scene t. Also see
■Wsrton, The JdUr, No. 33: Colman, Tcrne Filiiu, No. 2. And see
the foot of p. 133. lupra,
> Henrv Brooke, TAs Fool of Qmlits/, Vol. 4, p. 108. See I. Kings,
10, 24.
* Bishop Hurd, Moralatui PolUieai Biatogutt, p. 211, foot-note.
Seen here has ila old sense of ' lecsed '.
" All ;ou that fainc would learne the perfect WHJe
To have your child in nmsicke something teeni,
Aske nature, Hrst, what thereto she dotb sale,
Vur further sate ye make to anch a queene ;
For, doubtlesee, groesum caput is not he
Of whom the learned muses seene will he."
"DiotaBitiiiaet, Fit! Sundreth PBinta, &o., Inatrueting of Children.
'■■ Jones, of Nayhmd, Thealagical and Miioellansoaa JFaf/ii,Ya\. 2, p.
p Lowth, SermoiH and Otktr Bainairu, p. 338.
" Iq the style of the lady'a note to you I can eaaily
I perceivB a smafch of hor character." '
" Why, you know you never laugh at the old foUfs, am!
I never fly at your servants, nor gniuke people hefore thoir
\ facea," &c.'
" Who the devil eould think that he would smoke us in
L this disguise V '
esidea, air, in this town, people ore more ^nokij anil
h •uspicioua." *
"Mr. Gibbon shews, it is true, ho strong a dislike to
I CbriBtianity, oa viailjly dUqudlijies him for that society of
I ■wlii::h he has created Ammianus Marcellinus president." *
" I warrant your master is only in a sound ; and I \>i
I a bottle of stuff in my pocket, that will fetch him in a
[Tfhiff."6
"He loved me with passion; and, as I could not fiay
n in fipecie, I endeavoui'ed to supply my want of atli'L-
tioii to him by my attention and assiduities." '
1 Cnwper, Worki, Vol. 6, p. 155. JJao lee Vol. 8, p. IfiS.
< Mbs Barney, OccUia, Book 0, Ch. It. Also eco Jamei Eeniii.'y,
Saiim^ th« Wind, Aut 2, Seano 2.
' Kelly, Tht SeAool fir Wivei, Act 3, Scena 5. Add Goldsniitli.
Foots, CtmrlfiB Johnson, Charles Dibdin, &c. Also eee lUnssltlgtr,
Thi City Uaiiam, Act 3, Scene 1 ; Dryden, An Etening's Zatf, Act i.
^* Foole, The lar, Aot 1, Scene 1. Also we Th> Bngliihmau ii>
iPariii, Act 1 ; and The CommitiMHy, Act 1,
" Jgad, I don't like his Inoka. He seoma a little imoiy." Vun-
Inigli and Collej CihbBT, The TrotHited Umiand {nsS), Aci S. Sl-l,
further, Steele, T/a Sptelaloi; No, 320.
' Poraou, LetttTt lo Mr. AmhdtiuioH Traeii, Pretace, p. nviii.
Tn the rallowing extract, i». .. at is conatmctedwiih the pretei-it^.
" She wimplied in a manner u ciquisitely pathetie, at moved me "
1 Goldmiiih, n> Vi«tr of Wakifi^ld, Ch, 24.
■ tJickerstatTe and Fool«, Dr. Zait in Mi Chariot, Aot 3.
' Heiiry Brooke, The Fool of Queliti/, Vol. 2, p, 223.
" YoQ miist pttj him in specie, Madam, — give liim Ioto tot his «it."
Srrdini, Ah Bvening'i Love, Act 5,
Heren
hate tlis aider aud \mt r<
of lb,
D cxpresiioi
" Speeies, your honour knows, ie of easier conveyance." *
"He affirms, that, from the year 1726 to the year 1784,
there was coined, at the mint of France, in the npeciea of
gold and silver, to the amount of ahout one hundred mil-
liona of pounds eterling." *
"This needle had heen a glover's, of approved metal,
keen and polished, and three-sj'wre, toward the point,
for a quick and ready penetration of tough leather."*
" How an evasive, indirect reply will gtand with your
reputation . . is worth your consideration." *
" Whoever weds Isahella, it shall not be Father Fal-
couara'a »tari-up son." *
"I have one half of the house to myself . . while , .
the two musty nieces are etived up in the other hal£" ^
" So I find tiiey are all in a tiory" '
" How gtrange you make of this matter ! " *
' Garrioli, Neck or Nothing, Act 2, Scene 2.
= Burke, R^ctiani on the ReeulsUo7i in Franci. "The tpaiet of
eoin." Jeremy ColUar, Eiiays Hpon Seteral Moral Siibi'scli (ed. 1706),
Vol. 3, p. 182.
Wa owe oar ipeeit to tlie Latin plirafle in ipicie. In lilta mimner,
OUT t^gy h due to in e^ie, u nur anuestors once wrote, vbile thsj
put ej/igiei an the nominative. It does not appear that tre maf account
nmilBrly for the olisolcte ambage and oompaga. Instead of our in j
tiJScalt, the old eipresbion ii I'li ptnt^ficatibui ; but pontificaUbm wm
too long to be nntiiralized as Engliab. Contrut tnanilmf.
• Henry Brooke, Tke Foal of Qiialitj/ (od. 1792), Vol 1. p. 192.
^ee NtfciiniiUofPHrgalBriii{li2(l),{a.TarllenUJali,&<:. (ed. 1S44),
p. 73 : Fuller, Thi Holy Siat» and thl Frifant State (ed. 1841), p. 9.
• Ltlttrt e/ Juniwi, No. 6B.
> Horace Wulpole, TAs Caslh of Otranlo, Ch. 4.
" Riobnrdaon, Clariaa SarloKt, Vol. 7, p. 131.
' Bheridan, The Hunina, Act 2, Scene 3. Stoty is here put for
'plof.
' Charles Dihdin, The BeierUr, Act I, Scene 2.
" Bat hu, as if hee had nut knowne mec, or had not giTen him any
such thing at all, made to ttrangi of it, that hee made me to saapect
that, according t« the ciatome of that country, hee had druuke a cup too
munb, and bo might happely hare forgot it." Mabbe, Tht Rogue
(1623), Fart Z, p. 33S.
■ He gave me the dmppado on my elioiilders, and the
bastinado on the soles of my feet," •
" Yon are not a little beholden to the poor dear aoul
that 's dead, for putting a ^reak in your ladder, when you
was on the last stop of it."'
"Accordingly, the sublime of Homer, in the hands of
Pope, becomes bloated and tumid, and his description
tawdry." ^
" I ciinnot but marvel to see you jnnie so elmiii/e of an Bipreeaion
not only frequent in Scriplure, but common and usual in eiery lan-
guage.'" Joseph Made (1829), JForis (ed. IfiB*), p. 922.
Anotbcr old expression, somewhat similar, may aptly be exemplified
in this place. " II [pamlepels] is also very many times ubed, for s
good poUioie in pleading or peravrasion, to mati inUe be if we set but
light of the matter," &c. Fultenham, p. 194. Bee, for another in-
stance, p. 262.
' Biolicnitaffi!, Thf Fadloeh Aot 1, Scone 2.
* Cumberland, Tht Xataral Son, Act 3. Slrettk here means ' rung '
" Cnvfper, /Foi-i*, Tol. IS, p. 182. Here we haTfi a sample of a
ipeoiea o£ Oalliciam which struggled long, hut unsucceaafully, for
naturalization. Even in our own century, writers of not« have nsed
I like eipreesione \ but they ace uow leutured by none eicept tke very
effected.
" So that it was only s ciri! and p«liti<!sl worship, in the legislators,
d hod very little of tacred, even among Che ru%ar," £entley,
Woflu. Vol, 8, p. 301.
"HU model may be oicellent; hnt the copy vriil be riiiiculous.
I This ridiruh does not arise from bis having imitated," &c. Sir
Joahu-i Reynolds, Lilerari/ Warts, Vol, I, p, 161. And ridiealt is so
[ used by Addison, in Tht Spectator, No. IS.
" Tho iiieomprihmiilth of Lore.'" Cowper, Wurit, Vol. 9, p. 39.
" They are the shadowy oliieuri and fearfully anomalouf ul physical
I nature, Uie laiahii ol human nature." Coleridge, Kotcs and Leetura
vptiH SAatfipiarc, Vol. 1, p. 240.
Te will return, at some future time, to the tiulaphi/aical of the
Inngnage." Lander, Warkg, VoL 1, p. 164.
"lot to insist on tiie proiaie of the passage, wo may inquire who
i eould he suspicious, or who could know anything about Ida wit and
sublilly."' Id., itid.. Vol. 2, p. 69,
" Byron, often impreasive sad powerful, never reaches the Imvie
256 CHAPTER VII.
" The fencing-schools were, of necessity, much resorted
to hy your gallants, and such of the commonalty who
aped their manners, as tavem-waiters," &c.^
" Oh my Thais, welcome !
How does my sweeting ? " ^
"He vainly hoped that his sycophant court-language
would be echoed back in the address." ^
" The life of man
Is like a game at tables" *
" But here the common proverb takes place, that charity
begins at home." ^
" He took notice to his friends of the king's conduct." ®
" And draw'st the taplash of another's brains." ^
" When I sallied forth, the moon was darting her tem-
perated rays through the shade that surrounded the cot-
tage, tipping the tops of the venerable oaks with silver." *
" Then, throwing her teresa aside, upon my soul, she is
prodigious fine," &c.^
and the patlietic of these two poems. " Id., The Last Fruit Off an
Old Tree, p. 278.
The sublime, the obscure, &c., not followed by o/, are accounted
good English. Ridicule, for * ridiculousness', is a GaUicism of a dif-
ferent order.
1 Dr. John Nott, in his edition of The GulPs Horn-book (1812), p.
154, note 7.
2 Colman, The Comedies of Terence, &c., p. 101.
3 John Wilkes, The North Briton, No. 46.
In the prose of the last century, many words now exclusively
substantives were used adjectivally; as bombast, coquet, harlot, neigh-
bour, patriot, scoundrel, &c. &c. And vide supra, p. 227, note 3.
* Colman, The Comedies of Terence, &c., p. 2G5.
* Bishop "Warburton, A Selection, &c., p. 350. Takes place here
signifies * is applicable *.
8 Dr. Johnson, Life of Waller. Took notice here means *made men-
tion'. And so Richardson, ^a««iw, Henry Brooke, Colman, &c. &c.
■^ Colman, Prose on Several Occasions, &c., Vol. 3, p. 157.
« Mr. Berkeley, Olla Podrida, No. 37. Also see Johnson, The
Rambler, No. 17/ ' Foote, The Lame Lover, Act 3.
OUR GBAHDFATHEBS
" Otlier critica have taken the tent of Horace in the
me sense t/i'il I have Iiere considered it." ^
" i'or all the Jesuits had got the cholic, and to tluit de~
ee, as never waa knowa in the memory of the oldest
[ practitioner."*
rill give you a few lesaons shall set you up for a
I fine gentleman in a minute."'
" I am come to tjiste your good cheer, and pass an
evening with you over a tiffoi punch."*
"A tour to Tjbum in a Hm-whiehey and two would
I have concluded your travels," ^
> ColmiTi, Froit m Srveral Oeeasioru, &c.. Vol. 3, p. 97. Also eee
p. 111.
■■> atome, TriitriiM Shandy, Vol. 7, Ch. 39.
Slightly different is Ihe conatniotion in thfi fnllowing pnBsago, wherfi
ilial . . aa — the m being eipreaSFd Or undentood, — k followed by tbu
iulinitive.
" Mrs. Eirera behnvrf with that sweetness and affnbility a* to gain
slmoBl the adoration of the Bhole family." GrsTes, The Spiritual
Quiiati, Vol 1, p. 299.
" I never was thai romsntic fool to imagine there cun he happineBS
where there is not independency." Frederic Philon, St icouU it) a
Soldiir, Act 2, Scene 1.
"The dDmonstiatiTe that is aometimeB used, very emphaticnlly, for
■so much'. 'But the eiraulation of things, occgsioued by com-
merce, is not of that moment at the transplantation which human na-
ture itself baa nndcrgoae.'
" Sometime* this same pronoun is elegantly nsed for ' so mncli ' or
' fliich n ' . ' Some cf them have gone to that height of extravagance,
at to aeaert'," &c. Priestley, Tin Jludim/iita, &o., p. 63.
It may he doubted whether either of tlieae modes of pipreaBioD was,
in Priestley's time, regarded as elegant. At all events, thrj are
thorough vulgnrisms, now-a-daye ; just what one would look for in the
writings of scholars like Mr. Dioltena. See Somleij asd Sen («d.
1848), p. 472.
> Cumlwrtand, Tkt Choleric Man, Ant 2, Scene 2.
The omission of the relative pronoun is observable in this paBsago.
• Cumberland, The Brothem, Act 2, Scene S. Also aee Warton,
7%< Idlxr. No, 33 i Footo, Tht Cap«ehin, Aet 1.
* Foote, Tht CbsMWJ, Aot 1. Also see Colraan. Prologne lo Tki
I Suicide. Buries biBjim-tebiiiee. OirretpetideHee, Vol. 1, p. 182.
i H
VOa CHiFTEB VI i.
" Of time, on all occasions, he was an exact computer,
and knew the minutes required to every common opera-
*' Tou have a good appetite to what you eat 1 " '
" 'T is eviilent, and I can plainly see,
He baa no stomach to a wife." '
" He had the assurance, last winter, to court a tradee-
man'a daughter in the city, with two thousand pounds to
her fortune, and got me to write hia love-letters." *
" You shall have Nancy to your wife, aa I promised
you." »
" He flattered himaeK that she would not only acquiesce
viith patience to a divorce," &c.*
" I may lose five and twenty thousand pounds by their
acquiescence to this breach of faith in the Spaniards." '
" I think to go to Tunbridge for a fortnight." *
" It has been said, already, that the article has no mean-
ing but when associated to some other word." *
" But, to the deformer, — a name too often synonymous
to the improver,- — ^it is not necessary that bis trees should
have attained their full growth."^"
' Dr. JohnBon, life of Sicifi.
' Bickerataffa and Foote, Dr. Ltul i» Ml Chariot, Act 2, Scene 1.
3 Colman, Tin Chntedia of Terence, &c., p. 326.
* Garriclt, Siffh Life Btlaw Stairt, Act 1, Scene 2.
' Murphy. TArte Wetki After Marriagt, Act 2. And see Colman,
TIte ComtdUK of Teraae, kc, p. 171.
' Hornco Wnlpole, The Cattle of Otranto, Ch. I.
' Zetteri of Junius, No. 4. Also tee Br. Johnson, The Rainbhr,
No. 150 J and Horace Walpole, Tht Oulle of Otranto, Ch. 6. Cohnun
hm " acquieaciinco utitk." Prom on Several Oceiuiima, fie. Vol. 2, p.
lOS.
" Richardson, Claritia Sarhire, Tol. i, p. 29S.
' Jgraea Harrifl, Sei-joet, p. 224. Also aeo Aaron Hill, Worte, Vol.
I, p. 157.
"> Uvfldale Price, Aa Eway oh the Pietureaque, &o,, p. 219.
" So doth the kn accept it in this oath, irhere it makes it eqaivalent
and Bynoninioua to the wordes which are joined with it," &c. Donne,
Tteudo-marli/r (!610), p. 33B.
OUR SBANDFATHSRS' BKQLISH.
" WLat the devil is toward now^ " '
" Hiisli ! I hear Captain Cape's Toice. Tho hideous
tranwutane!"*
" Would you believe it, that perverse hussy, Lucy
Waters, who left me but this minute, threatens to froTis-
tierse all my hopes, and is gone this instant to Sophia,
with that resolution 1 " *
" But 't is all tritical, and moat irittcaUy put together. " *
" This, however, did not happen till it was tjtraed of
eleven} and then he judged it of the latest to intrade
upon them." *
" Tyranness in your turn, aceuae others of your own
gmlt." s
" Accept our uitaXienahle love to you both." '
" Your couEin, the maniuGss, and all ^our guesCa, are at linnd ; rtnd I
we no meat totcards." Deleter, Chottle. and Hanghtan, Fnlimt
GriMii (1603), p. 70 (ed. 1841), Also see Chattla. iTmrfAsrW ii«fnn»,
p. 48.
* "I 'm »ure there '» mischief toviardt." Sir John Vanbragh, Tht
Mittate, Act 6.
" But, as ill fortune would have it, there was bodib piutiy toward,"
4o. Mr. Euakin, Arah-a J'enUlid (1872), p. 30.
' Murphy, T/u Old Maid, Act 2, Scene 1. Also see Gay, Pally,
Introduotion ; Tanbnigli and Oolley Gibber, The Frmaked Mvaiurul,
Aiit 1 : Steele, Tfie Tindir Sutband, Epilogue.
" Is traiBonlaM, and sEambles all belief," writea Cowper, using tho
adjeotitB. Workt, VoL B, p. 183. And eo Steele, The Tatier, No. 223.
' Cumberland, The Brelheri, Act S, Seene 1.
• SleniB, Triitram Shandy, Vol. 6, Oh. 11,
' Ilonr; Brooke, The Fool of Quality, Vol. 6, p. 27. " ' Mjf dear ',
Eft}^ ho, 'aiF,puciunu home Tery lale, lust nigbt.' ''T was but just
tumtd of two ', Bays 1." Vanbrugh and Oolley Gibber, TIte I'liimked
Hiaiait'd, Act 3.
1, Clariua Sarlomt, VoL 2, p. 239. Also see pp. 4, IT,
The Tocation in tinin coniea to lie thought mean and
unereditabh." ^
" Don't be under any surprise." '
" The Penaloaa brought, thia evening , . . . one of the
jnoBt ungain, conceited profesaors of the art of murdeting
'er met with." '
The Phceniciana, who spoke a harsh and uniuneahle
dialect, were unacquainted with fine poetry, and, conse-
quently, with poetical ideas." *
Tou aee I am become a mereiBiirer, and want to make
we upon «ae." *
. " It renders the habit of society dangerously valeiudi-
nanj." *
But, really, these thick walls are enough to inspire
the vapours, if one uever had them before." '
" Heally, that old moat and drawbridge are enough to
vapour him to death." ^
[ shall presently aee landacapes beautifully diversified
with . . plains of plush, vaUeye of veheret," Ac."
She proceeded to remark, that they who had warm
fortunes were always sure of getting good husbands." '" ,
PalBy, Strmen, Sept. 21, 1782.
Guinbei'laDd, Tha Brolheri, Act i. Scene 3.
Becktord (1787), Ilaly, &o.. Vol. 2, pp. fl2, B3. Also see Misa
^antejf, Cecilia, Book 9, Ch. 3 : Cnmliorland, The Natural Son, Act 1.
' H. P. Eni|;bt, An Aeemml of the Semains, Sk., p. 91. Also see
Cumberland, The Natural Son, Act 1.
Hicbardaon, Pamela, Vol. 2, p. 389. Also sac Cnmberknd, Tia
Jfatuml Son, Ant 5.
Bnrke, Rsfleetiota on the BerolHtion in Traiise.
Miss Bnniey, Cerilia, Book 6, Cb. %.
Id., ibid.. Book 6, Cb. 7. " [Ton were] a little vapoured, I thought,
yesterday." Id., ibid.. Book 1, Ch. 10. Also sea Frederick Pkilon,
Me fBovld 6e a Ssldier, Aet 1, Scene 3.
Oiior|;e Canning, The MierocBim, No. 22. Also see Sautbey,
letter; &o. (Bristol, 1797). p. 11.
OolAsmitb, I^ Vicarof Wahefild, Ch. 16. In the same ohapter,
fRrmei WilllamB is colled "a icarm man ". This is a &Tourit« phrase
OVU GBAIfQFATHKBB ENGLIUU. 361
" She had been brooght to bed, that day mas a mnuth,
of a very fine boy." '
" You would much sooner be Uken for her wash-
"If dame Winifred was here, she'd make 'em all out
with a ■weljinger; but they are above me." *
"Perhaps there is not a fault but wJiatmay take shelter
under the moat venerable authoritiea." *
with the miserly Mr. Briggi, in Mias Barney's Cecilia. Alao ate Janli>a
Kenney, Mailing the tt^ind, Act 1, Soona 1: John O'Keoffo, Thi
Farmer, Act 2, Suanu 4 : Coleridge, Literary Eetaaira, Vol. 1, p. 203.
WaTM, in these cases, means ' afflaont '. The vulgar still use it.
' Ftwte, The Cbuniia, Act 2. And liere I msy mention sennight,
for ' week ', onlj recently obsoleted.
• Miss Bumey, Evtlina, Vol. 1, Letter U. Also eee Vol. 3, Letter
18.
3 Foote, The Enighti, Aet 1 . "A portar might fetch him with, a
wttjlnger" DeVker, A Kmghti Colouring (1607), p. 19 [fld. 1842).
The meitQing is ' with aaae '.
Br. John Kott, in bis edition of The GiilPi Sombook (1812), bti-
traya thut the phrase "nitli a wet finger " was unknowa to him in
roodem usa. I am sare I hava met with it fifty times in the literature
of the last century. For instances, hy Thumas Edwards and Samuel
Richardson, tm Uie CorrapotidtHee of the latter, Vol. 3, pp. 15, 173.
Also see Bishop Ijiviogton, The Moravians Campared arid Delected
(1750), p. SO.
Dr. Nott farther thinks, as to "with a wet finger", that "indeed,
it is not tmprohabla hat the expression may be purely Deckerian " ; and
dimetieai, he oonjeutorea, is "a word perhaps of thu author's coin-
age i for I fiftd it nowhere else " but in Dekker.
Both terms were, certainly, established before Dekker wrote.
" There is added, also, a large & plain table, in ordre of the A. B. C,
whereby to the name of any persone, or to any good matier in the
hooka couteined, readie waye and recourse maye with a iPtat fgnger
easily bee found out." DdtiLl, jipopAthej/iiiei (la42). To the Reader,
adjlnem.
Dimetieai is used by Kasb, in Pvrec Penilatt, &a. (1592), p. 40 (ed.
1842).
' Sir Joshua Reynobis, LitsTsrif Works, Vol. 1, p. 1 12.
a, but ichat tdU
the story of him." Benlley. Work; Vol. 2, p, 214.
" There is not a note in the gamut but wliat tends to betgten tn^
"There ia nothing so ridiculoiiB, or, rather, profane,
which pious writers will not say for the sake of a witty
allusion. Thus, the learned Bishop Taylor says, that
Christ was born at the sign of the Star, in Bethlehem." ^
" You may think it too soon to form an opinion of the
future government ; yet it is imposBible to avoid hazard-
ing aome eonjeutures, when everything wkUpera me that
naniea, not principles, are changed," iSic'
" I, for my part, do heartily widi you may not be
deceived." '
iTiflame m; irife's lauacj." Colntan and ThumU>ii, TIte CoHHoisieur,
So. 128.
" Ha olMerTed that no virtue was aHe M n-eiei his arts and seEidoity,
and that scarcalf a former'a daughter, within ten niilee round, but
viAat had found Mm Bacceesfiil and faithless," GDldsmilh, The f'icar
of Wstsfleld, Ch, 3.
" The abbot cannot be hnmbled, bnt vhat the coramnnity must be
hnmbled in hia jwraoa," Sir Walter Soott, The Monatlerg, Ch. 10,
" Not a thing stolen, but vthat the eea gare it up again futbfilUy."
Dr. I. H. Newman, Lives a/ iht Saints, St. FaulinQS, p. 102.
This gross vulgarism muDh Burpriees one in Dr. Newman. It ia
still frequent in inferior vritera. LordLytton, The Caxlatis (1-to1. ed.
1856), pp. IIB, 257, 263, 357 : What will S6 do with it f (ed. 1859),
Vol. 1, pp. 187, SOI, 326 ; Vol. 2, pp. 64, 95, 321 ; Vol. 3, p. 321 ;
Vol. 4, p. 10 ; ^ Strange Story (ed- 1862), Vol. 2, p. 226 : The
Coming Bace (6th ed., 1872), p. 289. Ee*. Charles Kingaley, Tao
YeBri Ago (London ed. 1857). Vol. 3, p. 27S. Mr. Charles Reade,
Hard Cash (ed. 1863), Vol. 3, p. 22 : Griffith Gaunt (ed. 1866), Vol.
2, p. 89 : PW Y<iur>elf i» Hit Flaee (ed. 1870), Vol. 2, p. BO.
> Graves, The Spiritual Qulxete, Vol. 1, p. 42, foot-not«.
" Mr«. Godwin, FeitAumiua Workt (17B8), Vol. i, p. 50. 'And ao
Miaa Burney, Horace WalpQlt^ &c, &.
' Gray, Works, Vol. i, p. 199. " I teiih thou art not already too
^miliar with the wicked ones." Mia. SoEanna Centlivre, A Snld
Stroke /or a Wife, Aot 5. " I tcish I don't love him at last." Hicb-
ardion, Sir CharUi Graaditon (ed. 1811), Vol. 4, p. 256. This is B
very common use with Richardson ; and I find it in Sterne, Miss
Carter, Burke, &a. &c. " I uiiih thoy don't half kill liim by theit
ridiculous fondness." Miss Bumey, Cecilia, Book 6, Ch. 6,
It mttst be oonfeesed, that we hare dealt strangely by ■hup), in mak-
ing it Eerre the ofSce of teith, in initanees like those quoted.
"J'tspere quGTOtie BBnt^Mf bonne. Voui Toil^ content, /> retpire."
" The Btation to which, the chief direction of such a
work properly belongs, ia filled icith a, person endowed,
beyond any other of this age, with all the abilities," &c.'
" Let me have a roast turkey, plump and full-breasted,
hia craw full with marrow." *
" When he shall see what frippery a woman is made up
with, what a pasticcio of gaiizes, pins, and ribbona go to
compound that multifarioua thing, a weU-dressed woman ;
why then, why then, — what was I going to say ! " *
" Come, come, my lord, a trace with your reflections on
my niece ! " *
" One commission, however, I can't dispense rtith my-
self from executing." *
Ttioae locutions are condemned by M. "Wej, Remarquit twr la Latigui
Franfiiu, Vol. 1, p. S'il.
As between the Freiioh and oureelveB, on wboae part has there here
been imitadon f Ot hoa there been none on eitfaei P
' Bishop Lowth, Sermima and Oc/utr Semaina, p. 90, note 2.
' Bobert Jephaon, I^ SlHngt to your Boa, Act 2, Scene 2.
3 Cumberltind, The Natural San, Act I. " But joa hare heard o(
our neighboun, Honestus and Futiosa,- — he a peaceable mun. and she
mude np fcilh discord," &c. VUcoiut GrtmstoDe, The iawi/cr'i Fur-
tutu, Act 1.
< Cohoan, Th4 Jtahut Wife, Act 3, Scene 1. Id., Prologue to A
Wift iH the Eight. Also see Chulea Macklin, Lavi d la Mudt, Aut 1,
^ Foote, Thi Jfinor, Act 2, Si>iinii 1. AIeo see Henry Broolw, The
Fof,l of QMtily,V oil, p. IIS; Vol. 3, p. 222 ; Vol, 5, pp. ill, 208.
" As the tenn begins this dsf, I ahould wieb Ui be dispensed aith in
general, bat will wait upon jou, if yoa think proper, oQ aiij pnrticnlar
occaiion, to call me intocotirt." Arthur Murphy, in The Frieati Car-
retpBttdmee of David Oarrici, &c.. Vol, 1, p. 603.
One of the old meuninga ol dhpmu tuitk, npplied io a person, ss
above, iiB 'exempt', ' excuse', 'absolve'. With tbe same sort of re-
gimsD, the simple verb diipenne, in the same sense, is perfectly good
EagUah ; and yet Or. Webster's Editors know nothing of it.
" Ho appeared to thiol binLself born to bo supported by others, and
ditpetued iiom all neceMitj of providing for himialf." Dr. Johnson,
Li/e of Saragi.
•• This is, at least, the rule ol bistorj ; and, if poetry should only
deviate from it for the aake of making the fable oi
" Here she meets with such, excellent pennyTvorths, that,
tts my pantty is stored with more provisions than we can
dispense with" &c.'
" And then he went on with sharpening his kjufe." *
" For more than a year, Scott has cut with the Edin-
burgh Eeview," '
I
vellona, heroic, nnd anBwering to our notions of jnstiue, T do not eee
how the poet b ditpemed from it in this inatance." Gibboii, Misatla-
neoui Warki, Vol. 4, pp. 125, 120.
" To diipente na from this painful necessity, unthority ought care-
fully to be iaviatvd viith u sort of magic puiGuaDiun." Godwin, A.n
Snquiiy, &e,, p. fi06.
"This materialism .... allows its disciples to talk, and diapensci
them from thinking." Shelley, Haiaifa, &o., Vol. 1, p. 326.
" The orders of the directors fumislicd htm with the means of effect-
ing his pnqiose, and ditpetutd him from the necessity of discassiag thu
matterwithhisCouneil." Lord MBCauky,iiMy on Warrm Ratting:
" Ab he could not be diiptnied from residence, he had no option but
to sell the living at once." Dr. J. H. Newman, Eaaayi Critical and
Biitorieal, Vol. 1, p. 414. Also see Leeluret an the FrcKAi Fosiliim of
Calholict in Utiylaiid (ISfil), p, 173.
' Caiman and Tbomton, Ths'^ContiDiuew, No. 91.
' Miss Bnmey, Cecilia, Book 2, Ch. 1.
' Southey, Seleedom from hia Letters, Vol. 2, p. 110.
A last-century use of toith is thus noticed by Hrieetiey : " The pre-
position with is, also, Bometimes used, in conversation, to eipruBs a
de^c of qnality something less than the greatest ; as, ' they are with
the ffidest'." The Sudiments, &c., p. fi6.
Similar phrases, in which we have substituted o/Tor viHA, are of the
oldest. For two, from Udail (1542), see my Additions.
" There had she such oheare as farmers houses alfoord, wha fare not
aifh the meanest." Henrie Chettle, Siadharti Breame (15B2), p. 97
(ed. 1841).
" And, although he was cut off in the middle course and principal!
atr^gth of his age, yet, in respect of honour and fame, he hvedioi'fA the
longest, having, in all parts, fulfilled the moBEure of true nobility."
Sir John Haywrirde, TAe First J'arl of ihe Life and SaigTtc of King
MiHrie Iht nil. (1SB9), p. 2.
" Till be be ready to rise, which, I presume, will not bee with the
soonest, I prethee let me intreat thee to goe a little way with a servant
'' mine," i:c. James Habbe, Thi Kogue (1623), Fart 1, p. 23fi.
"Neverthelesse, excuse me, if I tell you, sir, that your hnt dolhfl^
"We feel not tlie sudden damps hia spirit ia often
seized mthal." '
" Wildgooae could not forbear fixing bis eyes upon a
amall oval picture of a young lady, in a gilt frame, that
was fixed in a panel iDiOtbiside of the door." '
"Ay, marry, you are welt oiT. 'T is no worse than you
expected. But I am a woe woman this heavy day, I am
" It is not to be wondered, that Christianity hath made
no greater progress." *
a little on tlie one side thereof. The brimi ore leith tliu largest.
Cause them to he cut mare narcuvF," Thn Comical Sitlar;/ of Franeian
(16dS), Buok 6, p. 4.
I'bUcmon Holkod, in the paaaage whicli foUaws, put the aomporative
after icUh.
'■ Tea, he eseayed, flirt hefore all Otharg, to vault and mount on
horaebacI:e, to tihoot, also, &nd dart from hia horse. Went he,
anj time, away «'i(i the worse ? Very plensant he was, and laughed
at himselfe most of nil." The Cyrupadia {1G32), p. 12. " Want hs,"
&c., is to render t/rrujfwvoE Si atric.
like ' with the meanest ', £c. are the Latin cum primii, i» primii.
Also oompaie the Hehraism iv i^ioroil, iv roTc ii't'tertus, in sxcelnia ;
and Si' iyyur^roe, Tbucjdides, 8, 96.
Dr. Abbot prodoces a single instance aimilar to those which I bare
quoted, — "with the least," from Ben Jonson ; and this he hastily
explains as ognifying " something like, very near, tlio least." See A
S'mkeaperian arammtr (ed. 1971), see. \S5.
' Bishop Lowtb, StrmotiH and Other Smiaiui, p. 326.
' Graves, Thi Spiritual Quixeir, Tol. 1, p. 1S2.
' Henry Brooke, The Fmali Offietr, Act 2, Scene 3.
> Bishop Lowth, SermoHi, &c., p. 8S. Also see hia baiah (ed.
IT7B), Prelim. Dissert., p. a.
Milton. Ariopagitita (ed. ISeB), p, 36. De Foe, Mell Flanden (ed.
1840), p. 306. Bishop Hurd, Moral and Palilieal Dialogiiea, &is., p.
307. Mrs, Inchbald, U« WiM JfanD/"/Aa«flsJ, Act2, 8csnB2. Dr.
Newmim, ZtVu of ths Sainit, The Family of Sir Richard, Sui., p. 70.
Also cKfe luprn, foot of p. 201.
" Nor ia it at all to be admind, if men fancy something rash," Ice.
Lord rreston, JIm(i*im (1693), p. 187. Also ride itipra, p. 210, note 4.
Jt is eoitwnted ia admit him again, and watched to eiitraj) him."
Gauli', Xlvi-f,avTla, p, Zbo.
And here it is appropriate to remind of modes of
epeUing, now altered, which prevailed only a very
few generations ago ; ^ and also of words imported
from abroad, of which the old forms, as in the case of
Imsto' carieatiira,^ rotund* toiise,^ and vteto* differ
from those now in vogue.
Intermediate between the English which I have
been treating of, and English of recent emergence,
stands that which ia obsolescing. A few examples
of phrases, and senses of words, belonging to this
category, here follow.
" To shew my uncommon civility, I advertise my reader,
Mamlltd hss been U6cd in the siime way. Bacon, Eami/i, Ho. ii.
Of Defirmity. Gatakar, Of the Nature aad Utt of LoIk, &c. (ed.
1627}, p. 3*6.
" It ie pretended, that the compflnj may eipect," &c. Colman,
Terra FHiui, No. 2.
■ Such ss allay for alio;/, aisaj/ for emay, eisay for a»tay, Ac. ke.
Obsolete modeB of epelling, and thoee of pronnnciation, I cannot, how-
ever, undertako to treat of.
* " A buxa Btanda near them, to denote Saulpturo." James Har-
ris, Thrti Tritttiiei (ed. ITOS), p. 37S. Also see Dr. Joseph WirUn,
The Adventurer, No. S9.
' " I shall be stuck up in can'eaiura in all the print-shops." Gold-
smith. She Stoopi to Conquer, Act 4, Scene 1 . Also see Dr. Jowph
"Warton, The Adventurer, No. 133: John Frere, The Microcom,'So.
fi : George Canning, ibid.. No. 18.
' "They are going, likewise, to hnild a mt-iind. It) terminate the
visto." Shenstone, Letters, No. 47.
' This is the old corruption of sdiii, the Freni^h coin. Its pronnn-
ciation at so late a period aa 1781 ia seen from tbis couplet :
■> With broken Funds our Monarch meets the House :
His Board of Works have left him scarce a louu,"
Colman, Pnneon Several Vceaeioni, &e.. Vol. 3, p. 229.
* " They might see a long, dull, dreary, uoToried riito of despair
and exclusion, for halt a century, before them." Burke, SpteeK m cMa
£commieal Refonn, 1780. AJso see John O'Eceffe, The Friimier tl
large, Act 1, Scene 4.
that I Bhall impartially transcribe every argument in your
liivour that has come to my knowledge," Ac'
" It was boldly aflSrmed, that iimumerablB miraclee ap-
proved the peculiar virtuea of the practice which was thus
introduced," &c.* .
" So far aa this hypothesis may be accepted, the ground
of the difficulty is done ajeay."^
" By what I have heard of his character, I fear it affords
no very comfortable prospects for our poor PrincesB." *
" He is known, however, to have written several things
that have appeared as anonymous; and I fancy, now, soon
we shall see something conisidprahle from him." "
" The learned Le Fevre wrote a most elegant copy of
Latin verses, execrating the fiute and all the commentators
onifB
"A short time, I hope, will discover the generosity of
his sentiments, and convince you that my opinion of him
has been more just than yours." ^
' I'oraDO, Zclleri to Xr. Arthdeaeon Trovd, p. fi3.
= Southey, rind. Eecl. Angl., pp. 490, 4BI. Also laa p. 95.
' Paley, Natural Thmiogt), Ch. 26. Also ace Cowper, Worti, Vol,
0, p, 860: Southej, Fi'nrf. Stcl. Angl. p. 302.
* Miu Garter, Lettiri to Min Talbot. £c., VoL 3, p. ISl.
' Mi«B Humej, Cedliit, Book 8, Cb. 8. "Before I proceed, a re-
msrk may he made hate, which our good old writeri wonld have oalled
miHiiiitratlt." Soathey, find. Seel. Angi,, p. 22, Also see Laudoi,
Worla, Vol. 1, pp. 163, 164.
• Colmao, The Camcdiea of Terence, &0,, Preface, p. 33.
■< Gold«n)itli, The Vioar of Wakefield, Ch. 17. AlsoseoDr. Newman,
Etiafie Critieal and Si'ilBrical, Tol. 2, p. 439.
A very common old sense of diieoter, namely, ' explore ', ' examine ',
ia not recorded by our dictionarf-mukErs, Every reader of early roy-
iigcs and traTols, in prtrticular, must know it well.
" She Inie a slepe upon her backe, with her handes creI otci her
heddo,— ftB, for tho mosle parte, yong women are wont to doe,— so that
rorthwilh the yong Prince diieotvred her from kippe to toe." fiarnahe
liche, TareweU (o Militarie Proffiaum (1581), p. 102 (od. 1846).
'■ In this eame yecre, ISOO, it is reported, that Gwper Corlereal
crsTed a gencrall licence of the king Emmimue! to diecover the New
" Could any poor creature write such stuiF, unless one
lately eloped from Bedlam ? " '
" Mrs. Sarsanet, it seems, under whose protection Miae
Townsend had placed herself, after her imprudent elffpe-
merit from her father, had some buainesa at Bristol fair." *
" I make little doubt but Noah was glad, when he was
enlarged from the arkj and we are i
when he came out of the hsh ; and
from the good sloop the Harriet." *
" Cecilia, who had no difficulty i
tended school-master for Mr. Gosport, i
B that Jonah waa,
o was I, to escape
1 knowing this pre-
i readily begin-
" He spared not for warmth of expression, to
alarm her deKcacy, or add to her displeasure." "
found land." The Biieoverita of the World, &c. (1601), p. 90 (fld.
1862).
" Sach a one was Juliua Casar, who, in Britain, a country undU-
cavfred, peopled with a ralinnt nation, boguD a war in antoniii," &c.
Fnller, The Sulg Stale and the Frnfani Stale, p. 308. Also see Glnn-
vill, Sctpaia SdentijUa (ed. 166S), p. 31 ; afoyi, &0. (1676), VII.,
p. 1.
" God commanded Moaea to aend twelve men to diicovfr the land of
Canaan." Jeremj CuUier, Esaaj/i upon Seteral Moral Salyects, Fart
4 (ed. 172S), p. H6.
" These Tules, then, I will take for suro gronnds, and ustf them as a
land-compass, in tlie diicovny I now intend." Joseph Mede (l(il3),
Worti (ed. 1661), p. 370,
"And that there ia an America of Beorets, and unknown Pern of
nature, nhoee diieovery would nchty advance them, is more than con-
jectare." Glanyill, Seepaii Seienlifica (ed. 1663), pp. 131, 132.
"Now, to judge whether the ancients or moderns can be probably
thonght to have mods the greatest progress in the search and dia-
eoveriit of the vast region of tnith and nature, it will bo woTtll in-
quiring," &Q. Sir William Temple, MiaecllsHra, Part 2, p. B.
' John Wilkes, The North Briton. No, 19. "He eloped from his
fiiends," &c. Miaa Burne;, Cecilia, Book 1, Ch. 2. Also Bce Ueury
Brooke, TAe Fovl of QWifj/, Vol. 2, p, B8.
' Graves, The Spiritual Quixote, Vol. 2, p. 13.
' Cowper, IVorka, Vol. 5, p, 160.
' Miss Bnmey, Ceeilia, Boot 2, Ch. 3,
' Id., Hid., Book 3, Ch, 8,
" Siio not only became reserved to me, iu order to re-
I commend heraell' m.orG effectually to our gouvernante,
I but," &C.1
" The Djuaic struck up, and, playing bo loyal a piece of
isic, no one liad the hardhiega to interrupt them." *
" My good intentions towards you ... are Qontinually
I frustrated by mere miperlinmciee, each as calls of
I civility from persons not very interesting to me," Ac.^
" And here it will not he impertinent to observe, that,"
f &c.«
" Yon will not, I hope, foi^et to send them time enough
[ to be inserted in the volume." *
" With your natural turn to equity, and knowing, as you
), in the doctrine of precedents," &c.^
" The dwarf had like to have been killed more than
" I collect the articles of news from the other papers,
I and make new ones for the postscript, translate the mails,
I write occasional lettere from Cato and Theatricus, and give
I fictitious answers to supposed correspondents." *
' Gntres, The Spirilual Qiiixote, Vol. 1, p. 114. Also aco Cowpar,
I Tit Caimoiueur, Ko. 119 : MtB. Inchbold, The MidiU^kt Hour, Act
I ], Bcaoe 1.
' Graves, Tht Spirilual Qaixoln, Vol. 1, p. 201. Also aeo Cowpcr,
mrtt. Vol. S, p. 3BI.
5 Cowper, Wbrhi, Vol. 7, p. S35. Aleo see Mr. De Qamoflr,
Woiit, VoL 16, p. 2S2.
* Colertilge, Mdi to R^eetian (ed. 1854), p. 108, Also see
Bouthey. Fi«d. Sed. Angl; p. 81 : Mr. Da Qoincey, Warlu, Vol, 13,
p. GO, foot-note.
" Covrper, Work; Vol. 6, p. 351. In ia omitted here. Also lee
I Coimun, Tk< Oeniui, No. 9.
■ LeUeria/Jwiiu»,So.6S. Also see Johnson, Tht AdeiHCwrr, No.
I 137.
CHAPTEE vn.
" Let a man be never so wicked himself, yet," &c.'
"la proportioa as ncknowledgments ate warmly ami
vividly given, they are obnoxious to thia possible imputa-
tion," &C.''
" But this we leave, as foreiga to our work, and draw-
ing us into a theory which merits a better place than an
nc&aalonal note." *
" A gentleman told me, that, when he had once gone
far from hia own island, one of his labouring servants pre-
dicted hifl return, and described the hvery of hia attend-
ant, which he had never worn at home, and which had
heen, without any previous design, oeeaewnaJhj given
" However, the task proved so difficult, that, when I
had gone through a part of it, I remitted of my diligence,"
ilte.*
" 'T is true. Lord Dartford'a proposals to Miaa Herbert
render him unworthy my alliance," &c.*
' Biehop Lowth, Sermont and Other Remain!, p. 300.
° JcHieph Richardson. The Fugitive, Adveitiaeinent. And see Jeremy
Bentham, Woria, Vol. 4, p. 23.
" Do ^ou prefer a Galliciam, or a Latinism i HowcTcr, 70a aball
liave botb. 'Kot ohaziaue to Clodiiu'e Irw', fur nut ' auienablo ',
'liable', or 'subject'," &o. Lsndor, World, Vol. 1, p. 158.
It is very eoceatrin fo assBrt, tbat there is anything of foreign idiom
' James Harris, Thr^s Treatiies (ed. 1765), p. 367.
* Dr. Johnson, A Journeij, &c,, Ostig in Sky.
The leiicogmphers do not distinguish the two eenees of ofeaiionat
and Bceanotiaity. The prevailing modern setiM, 'now and then', ia
nono^lty.
" Sacb as these famous mirrors Bhall wee MeatvniaUf/ encoantor
wiUiall, in our reudings." ItraCbwsit, The Eiigiiih Oentlcman, &c.,
p. 449.
» Mnson, The Art of Fainting , &B., Profiice.
" Joseph Richsrdflon, Thu Faffitiiic, Aot 6, Scene fi. Of u hers
omitted. " Not unarorlhij the anlagontat of Dryden." Johnson,
Life ofTopf. Also see The SanUiler, No. ISO, " irorlii/ the rsgErd
OUB aft&HDFATKERS ENGLISH.
" Her country, and the other marks
Of her original, she neither knew,
Nor, from, her age, was 't poBsible she Bhould." ^
" As my flrat wish, in attempting a play, was to avoifl
[ every appearance oi plagiary" &c.^
" la that 80 wonderful ? And do you think
To find a woman without any fault 1 " *
" It tends to familiarize the mind to those atriot and
[ flevere principles of judging," &c*
" But, chiefly, I was struck to see that he suiFered Sir
Clement, who stayed gupper, to sit between us,"'
oF", &D., Ti., Aid,, No. 82. "'WTio ara uHumrthij proUctioa." Gold-
imith. Tie Vicar of Ifaie/Uld, Ct, 20. " Wart&rt attention." 8ir
Jobhuri KeynoH*, Liierctry tFarka, Vol. 2, p. Bi.
1 Colmsn, Thi OmtdiH of Terence, &c., p. SO.
> Sheridui, TAt Xii/ah, Preface.
> Colmiin, Tha Oomedia ef Tirenee, &c, p. 323. Alao see Misa
Hannah More, in The Privata OHmpondmee of David Qarriei, &o.,
Vol 2, p. 279: Cumberland, Tie Sataral Soa, Act 4: Mrs. Cowley,
" 'ere ITiit/e (Ann 0«i, Acta 3 and ^.
• Qodwin, Thi Enquirer, p. 184. Also see pp. 2Z5, 362.
' Mus Bnniey, Evelina, Vol. 3, Letter II. "We intended to stay
I theFarce." Id.,ibid.,Va\.l,'LcVl£-c20. "ShewoulAnotHaj/theirriaiiuf
J in the morning.'' Id,, Ceeilia, Book 9, Cli. 4. Alao aee Biefaardcoii,
I lunula. Vol. 4, p, 298 ! Anon., The World, No. 77 : Goidamith, The
~ raf Waktfield, Ch. a : Colman, The Genim, No, 16 : Beoktord,
I 2w/y, &o., Vol. 2, p. lOi.
"Su the Duke and the rest uF the lorde departed, except the Earle
\ oFDsrhy, -who «(fly«i™ji/jn' with the King," &c. Sir John Hajrwarde,
I The Fint Part of the Life and Saii/iie of Stay Senrit the IIII.
(lo99), p. 26. Alao see p. 38.
Tiii and /or have sometimea been omitted after ' stay '.
" Stay quarier-day he never ean abide.
But takea np rent apon the high way -side."
Samuel Itowlanda, The Four £n(itv<, p. 55 (ed. 1844].
" Do yea heure, duughtct ? Too ahall slai/e laff leaavrc"
Henry Porter, The Two Angrie Wamea of Abifstan (1699), p. 34
[ (ed. 1341),
"Britac, And how does jourdnngUter? J,eu)ie, Ready for the honre,
id like a blushing rose that itaiii the pulling,"
Fletcher, The Elder Brother, Act 2, Sceue 1,
" Yet still the honest man went forward without auapi-
cion, and grew rich, whUe I still continued tricksy and
cunning, and was poor, without the consolation of hoing
"V.a.'nD^ staid the Queen'i aafe delivery, .... be set forward," Ac.
Hamun L'Estrange, Thu Seign of King Ckarki (ed. 1G56), p. 193.
Also see Heylin, Tkt Bittori/ of Epxncopacy (1657), Part 2, p. 378.
' Goldamith, The Vicar of 'll'a/ie_field, Ch. 26.
The formaCion of Iflckti/ is observable ; the word eiemplifjing the
rare aaffii -cy, vhich, perbape. consieta of s enphonicallj prefixed to
the adJBCtiyal -y of roomy, for instance. Trielity is, then, irick + 'tg.
Tipiy I would take, similnrly, from the now prnTincial tip, ' draught
of liquor', and not go afield, with Dr. Wehtter'a Editors, to find its
base in the Swias tips. Tipple is the fieqaentatiTe, or else the dimin-
ntive, of tip. So we onciG had huggle, from hug. See Stubbes, The
Anatomit of Abuses, p. 100. Ei»gk, from nils'. Tusaec, ptaiim.
Seantle, from icant. Erathwait, The English Getii/ema«, &C, pp. 123,
270. Add gmxtle, from grunl.
The Bchoolhoy's eatif doubtlesB sprang from coehy ; and kiekty-
wieksy, from kickg^aickg. Again, as a friend enggosta to me, doxy,
inatead of being referable to the Danish duike, nia^ have Blartcd ftavi
the vernaiuJar ducky, and so oonsiat of duck + » + y,
Bat we are not yet at the end of words presaiDablj embodying a
Idlethy. Whitlocli, qaoted bj Archdeacon Todd.
Levidibg. Qaestiom of FroJilaUe aiid Pleasant Cnnecrniiigs, &D,
(1694), foL 31 V.
Rigihy. A World of Wonders (11106), The Epistle, &a., sig. A 2 r.
Rudeaby. Used twice bj Shakespeare.
"Ton are a radetbg, yourself," writes, in 1774, Mrs. Catherine
Clive, in The Private Correipeiidetice of David Oarrick, &e.. Vol. I,
p. 604.
Sneaksby. Barrow, JForit, Vol. 2, p. 8 ; Vol. 3, p, 330. Dekker,
in his Satiro-maslix, sig. I 4 y, has meakesbitl, for which fonn, and
for meakliU, see the new edition of Nares's Olossary.
Suresby. James, A TreatiH of the Corruption of Scripture, &c.
(1612), Part a, p. 12. Sym Suresby figures in Udalr'a Ralph Roister
Soisler (before lBfi3). Sureiie is the form in Richard Bernard, Ter-
ence in Unglish (1688), p. 86 (ed. 1607). Like it, as to the absccoe
of (, is litherbie. Id., ibid., p. 19.
Here we have, annexed to adjectives and snbetantives, a, with -by;
unless aome ono proves the extsteitce of the teimiaa^an -iby. And
" And now, sir, eoniplmients hcirg p(V5sc(!, I shall begin
upon- business," '
" Saying this, he anatcheil up hia play, leaving my
loster to please liimself with the prospect of being criti-
ciied upon, in a, newspaper." *
' Hah ! Here 'a another visifant, with another newa-
At the beginning of this chapter, I quote an ob-
eervation by Mr. Marsh, a philologist of high note ;
and naany of my pages serve, incidentally, to show
how far that observation is contradicted by lacts,
But, if a scholarly student of our language can
I err as Mr. Marsh has therein erred, what can be
wlint is thia -ig } Hoiav have seen boy iu it. Tbe old spelling riidei-
bey, wUioh I find once, eoggests do solution.
In nanieB of places, -Jy is Swindinaviaii.ttnddenotca' town", 'abode',
Namea of places bava largely become namea of persons, as Bnctht-
hy. J)mby, Jirrhy. Futherby, Grimihy, Stibg, THoreaAy, &b. ftc
Catesby, JUreiby, &o., I flto unablo W etymologuie ; but we are not,
I vith Mr. If. 1. Bnwditch, to Und bet, the inceot, in biigIi nnmos ai
AUlm, Denhee. and >SiUbee. Soe Safolk Snniama, p. 216,
Perhape it mis in anecientifio imitHtion of prupur nntne* baring -ijy
I St tlie enJ, that ooi oneestutK coined idlniy and itK congeners.
Sumpiie bus been used for 'nearly tipsy'. TfUnii'i Jolt, &e., p.
I 8. "A dria and driclisU oko," Pnttenham, p. 20S. Dr. John
Euadlj signs bimself , at the end of a lotler, ■* Tour affuctiunBte
Fucby," The I'rivati Cni-rctpimdena of Bavld Qarriiik, &n.. Vol, 1,
p. 271. Gadai is u Gypsy word for ■■wifn'. Kyjuej/, in some pacts
I of flo^tand, means 'basket', Limpay and linxy go with Jiimtg-
Mepiy li'iig signiflod 'woman', 'mistress'. Btubbes, TAt Anatomia
I o/ Abum (cd. 1836), p. 160, Pudtry, wbith BBemB to hum pre-
ceded pudyy, ia found in Eicbordson's Sir CharlN Gmndimn, Vol.
I 7, p. 239. QaMy is a low term for 'indigent ', SUtigtby I hove u
note of, but am not sure of its sense. Toatty, in the languHge of the
nufsery, U for ' foot '. Tntinwey is knoim to everybody, Tlleeu words,
, and many like Itieni, wMcb miglit be meutiouvd, are etymologii:al
I puExles.
' Person, Zftttrn (o Utr. Arehiicseon Tivrii, p. 21,
' Cliuriea Johnson. Chfyal, Vol, 3. p. Zlfi,
' Mrs. Cowley, Mori Wayt l/i«n Oiu, Act 3.
b ^
expected from aucli a person aa Mr. Thackeray, when
he attempta so nieo a f-aak as to write in the English
current among the contemporaries of Steele, Addison,
and kSwift P ' To some, perhaps to many, hia well-
known attempt to write thus has seemed signally suc-
cessful. Of this opinion is, for instance, a eulogist
in TliB Saturday Recieic. For we there read : '
" Mr. Thackeray's Ennoiid is & miracle of imitative art.
.... It is scarcely possible for the keonest-acented critic
to unearth an anachrouism, Thus, no man, woman,
or child, in Eemond, ever says anything that he or she
might not have said in the reign of Queen Anne."
To expose the profound ignorance of this is suffi-
ciently easy. Who, in Queen Anne's time, ever
heard ofsuch English as " ivas being battered iowa"?*
' Of the spirit, ta of the language, of aoj bygone age, Mr.
Tbnckeraj had but «. parblind peroeptioii. But, among all bis works
ia which he baa Tentorad iata t^e past, thnt on the Eogtisb bumourista
must, to any one who haa atadied those writere by tbe light of bietory,
aeem the most ambilioualy abortive. Prom Mr. Thackeray, as a novel-
ist, there are, bnwcTer, lesaonB to be learnt which are highly Tolued
now-a-days, and, but for supplying wbioh, be would never he tba
prime favourite that he is wilh young Britons. And Iheae lessons are,
with others of a aimilnr cast, to diabalievo utterly in human goodneBB,
and to balievs every one who is not of jonr own set to be, moat likely,
B " cad", and to be treated acoordingly. The novels of Mr, TbackerDy
mirror, rigidly to the life, the conceit, superailioUBneaB, suapinion, and
jenlouay of the Engliahroan in his latest polite phaais of degeneration.
To hia countrymen tbey have, indeed, become a very Bible, aa I hare
more than once heard them admiringly denominated.
Mr. Thackeray'a patrician slang atfects, I know, many who live out
of Che world, juat ae it affects myself. Well has it been said, by Sbelley :
" The vulgarity of rank and fashion is aa gtoss, in its way, as that of
poverty; and its cant lerma, equally eipressivo of base uoneeptions,"
Essays, 4c., Vol. 2, p. 222.
" Vol. 18, p. 715 (Dec. 10, 1864),
' Vol. I, p. 29. Also see Vol. 2, pp. 2fl, 228, 244, 248, The
rpFerencd are to the London edition of Thi Hitlory ufHtiiry Eiwotid,
in three volumes, 1862.
I
Or of the verbs cede,' olden,'' philander?^ Or of (ifj-
ffressive,* civilisation,' transatlantic,^ unplemaiitry,^ up-
set?^ Of directly,' immediately,'^ and instantly," for
' as soon as ' ? " Of all the same, " for ' nevertheless ' ?
The readBF vrill Hnd, in. the Appendii, a full diacuedon of phruaes
like thai \a wMcli Uiie nute is attadisd.
' Vo!. I, p, 237.
= Neuter and octEre. Vol. 1, pp. 202, 2S2. I doubt tlint tbe
world had often heard of this verb before 1S32.
' VoL 3, p. 108. This verb, ant imposBibly, did not bob the light
till aiter Mr. Tbnclieraj himself. Tbe allusion it conveys is old.
Attach, *erb neuter. Vol. 1, p. 161. tFeart/, Vltrb oauter. Vol.
1, pp. 1S7, -236.
These rorbs aro not known to tbe diclionory-wrightB. I rvia to
them at pp, 293, 301, in/m.
Narrate. Vol. I, p. 19; Vol. 3, pp. 13, 32, 230, This Terb, in
Queen Anne's days, would, almost certainly, bare sturaped its umt as
Scotch. Sec, furthcEr, p. 121, inpra.
' Vol. 3, p, 15. This adjecdre, at least for any uuljceable eurconcy,
belongs to our century. Vide infra, p. 314, note i.
' Vol. 3, p. 16. It appears that Mr. Thackeruy could not have
heard of the etory ooDnecting this word with Dr. Johnson.
" Vol. 3, p. 324. Who us«d traTisatiantie befom the American
Hevolulion ? Sb William Jones used it in ITS:^. See Memoirt, &<:.,
p- 217.
' Vol. S, p. 246. Mr. De Quincey, having used the term iin-
pleetaHlriei, thus annotates on it : " This is a new and ludicrous
word, launched, a vt:ry few years back, in some commercial towns.
It is generally uwij, not in any sense that the reader would collect
from its antipole, pUaiantry ", &o. }riiTka (ed. 1BB3], Vol. 6, p.
258, fool-nule.
This uuthur is fur too omniscient to be trusted implicitly ; but tlivro
is Bcaroely room tor queititm that vaplmta»try sprang up during his
Ufe-ttniB.
'' The substantive. Vol. I, p. 307. Upiett, ttnder that name, were
very mrc befora 1800.
• VoL 3, p. 36. '" VoL 2, p. 278. " Vo3. 1, p. 38.
" iiMfonrify.BsHr.Ttiackemy uses it, I du not remember to have seen
cxocpt in his pages. 0( its synooyms, dir'/cHu and immrdieteti), the
latter is the older ; it having been printed in the lost century, towards
a Seotticiam, and was imported
Of espreesiona like quite a young lad' and in the
interest* of justice; or of a young person,' for 'a
young woman ' ? Wlio was then so careless as to
write different to* habitually P Or so curious as to
have disinterred, and ao eccentric as to use, the verb
advocate,' the participle humiliated,'^ the adjective in-
fiuenlinl^ and the preposition on to^? It was all
very well for Mr. Thackeray to call an inn accustom-
ed ; here and there to introduce phrases like a-bird-
ing, a dish of chocolate, a pretty many, sceptic doiibta,
trencher-man ; to misuse imperial, for ' imperious ' ;
and to call a pretty maid-servant an ancillary beauty ;
but, in these, and perhaps half a dozen more, obsolet-
isms, — the whole of which might be got together in
two hours' reading, — is comprised everything, in hia
novel, at all savouring, as to language, of any days
I Vol. 3, p. 132. Qitfte a child. Vol. I, p. ISl. Quill an tagtr.
nan. Vol. 3, p. 25. Addlsnn aud his fricn^H knew nothing of quite,
in thfl Bonse which it has here ; nor, eicept when the word wBfl pre-
ceded by a negative, did the]' put a after it.
' Vol. I, p. 103. yfe may be pretty sura that eyen Dr. Johnson
was tinacquninted with this mie of inltrist.
= Vol. 1, p. 175. Thie nauaeons slang Mr, Thackeray stands almort
alone, among \a conteiaporaries, in employing scriouiljr. It ia alto-
gether modem.
* Vol. 1, p. 313; Vol. 3, pp. 37, 48, 78; Vol. 3, p. 166. For
diffrrnil to, see pp. 77—81, fupra.
» Vol. 3, p. 69. Vide infiv, foot of p. 285.
< Vol. 1, p. 141. Ses the foot of p. 133, sspra.
' Vol. 3. pp. 243, 209. Between the dnjs of Borrow and thou of
Buike, the slambeta of inJItKutiiil were dieturbed yery rarely. Viit
infra, foot of p. 286.
' Vol. 3, p. 12, For this antiqne, see Cspgraye, Tha Chnnieltof
Engltind, p. 382.
I may adil partially, for ' only in part ', Vol. 1, p. 188, This, too, ti
both yery old and too modern for Mr. Thackeray's pnrpore. For a
\g period it was diauied. Vidi tupra, foot of pp. ISl, 192.
OUR grandfathers' ENGLISH. 277
but our own. In brief, instead of being " a miracle
of imitative art," the work at which I have thus
glanced lacks no one attribute of a complete failure.
As inculcating the necessity of caution, if, in
dealing with language, one would avoid trespassing
against the proprieties of chronology, the digression
in which I have here indulged may, perhaps, be
considered as pardonable.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED.
n in homintfaus to
a perrereibu, i
glande
The complacency and the querulousness of Eng-
lishmen, traits whicli conflict so ludicrously in their
national character, have nowhere shown themselvea
more conspicuously than in the opinions which we
find recorded touching our language. Some of these
opinions I have already adduced ; and their instruct-
iveness is such, that, except for fear of hecoming
wearisome, I should feel warranted in adducing many
From the manner in which Sir John Cheke writes
about English,' one might almost infer, that he sup-
posed it to have sprung from his native soil, in 'com-
plete equipment for every conceivable service. At
any rate, he seems to have thought that it needed, in
his days, but very scant enrichment from without,
for any emergent purposes whatsoever.
But the dreamy irrationality of Sir John was not
at all peculiar to him. It is the great basis on which
nearly everybody, from hie day to our own, has phi-
lologized. Neither culture, nor erudition, nor any-
thing but common-sense, can save a writer on lan-
guage from drivelling ; and philological dotage is,
' MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED,
279
with rare exceptions, as mucli the rule, among our
contemporaries, as it ever was. The proofs of this
exist in unlimited abundance ; but I shall confine
myself to transcribing a passage in which, somewhat
more circumatantially and concisely than is usual,
absurdity attains its perfect climax.
" Some optimists may be ilisposed to ask, what is the
good of thia hatr-aplitting, and to say that English may
safely be left to itself. Gut, if we examine the hiatory of
the language, we perceive, that, since the date of the
authorized ttanalation of the Bible,- — the finest example of
English, — the alterations that have taken place have been,
generally, for the worse. The double negative has been
al^ndoned, to the great injury of strength of expression.
The inflexion of the preterite haa been abandoned, with
the use of the second person, that moat forcible of all
kinds of address. The affected Itabanisms of the six-
teenth century happily did not commend themselves to the
translators of the Bible. They were succeeded by the
more offensive Gallicisma of the modish eighteenth cen-
tury, which, happily, could not maintain their hold. The
nineteenth century has witnessed the introduction of abund-
ant Gallicisms, Germanisms, Americanisms, colonialisms,
and provincialisms ; nearly all needless, or easily to he sup-
plied by more correct words or phrases. There is no nation,
except our own easygoing one, that would tolerate such
words as i) jn-opox or naive, the one a foreign phrase, the
other the feminine of an adjective, appbed indiacrimiuatcly
to nonns of both genders ; the Carlyleian hfforc-vnhenrd-
of, pkriue-biruUng-iogether, Aristoplianen-wise ; such vile
compounds as atarvaiion, a Saxon root with a Latin ter-
mination, in a misapplied sense ; and the many provincial
slang words, as to run doma and put. up with, both provin-
cialisms : see the Dorwt Glosmry, pp. 77, SI. Now
«oO CUAPTBR VUI,
though many provinuialisias are very good Euyhsb, as the
Cheshire word to elem, lor our inaccuiatB to utarve, in the
sense of ' dying of hunger,' yet the indiecriminate admis-
sion of slang phivincialignis, in no small part due to
novel -writers, ia destructive of the purity of the language.
Ifot merely in words, but even in grammaticfti forms, the
language is atill undergoing changes." ^
How disheartening the reflection, that oar lan-
guage " is still undergoing changes " ! Wten, pray,
was any language not undergoing changes ? And,
save by effecting a total transnaturation or stagnation
of the human mind, how could a language be pre-
vented from undergoing changes ? We are admon-
ished, too, that, as to starve, because it meant, with our
remote forefathers, more than it now means, namely,
'perish from cold, hunger, &c.', weare "inaccurate",
in limiting its application ; but that the antique clem,
still surviving in Cheshire, is " very good EngKsh ",
In other words, whatever is old is good, and whatever
is new ia bad, Starvation, we are also told, belongs
to the class of " vile compounds," from being a
mongrel ; as if English were not full of mongrels,
and as il' it would not be in disti'essing straits, with-
out ihem. Further, to run down and to put up with
are to be rejected on the ground that they are
" provincialisms ". " Even if they were so by origin,
' Thi Londoa Reviete, Oct. I, 1864, pp. 37B, 380.
* But ia what aense provinci^isma F Thcj may be Ijctter known to
the fliiiuniDn people of Doisetshire tbnn to tbe common people elue-
where ; but tbul does not prove that tbey bad their birth in Donet-
thire. Does It folloir that rha and an, beoauee they are popiilaclj
U3eil, in Suffolk, fur iplU and iliy, began witli being Sitffulkisms?
EuH dototi, B melnphor borrowed from the chace, has ever;; nol« oF a
gouii idiom. Sot is it modem j and it does not aeem eier to lutrt
UODERHISMS EZSUPLIPIBD. ^Sl
where, it ia pertinent to ask, must a word have been
born, in order to be a proper word ? To be reckoned
lawful, must it be made out to have sprung up all
over England simultaneously, like the grass in
spring P And is the sanction of universal usage in-
sufficient to legitimate it ?
To the extract just commented on could be added
a hundred others of a kindred purport, that is to say,
conceived in a spirit of pure fatuity. That, especially
in our century, people can go on writing in this way,
merely demonstrates, that abiding irrefiectiou ia quite
consistent with increase of general knowledge. No
unprejudiced person, il' he takea the trouble to ob-
serve and to consider, can soberly maintain, that
English ia deteriorating ; and any one who remem-
bers what new words have arisen within the last
thirty years, must be convinced, from his own experi-
ence, that our lunguage is, as it always has been,
and always must be, in a state of irrepressible growth
end mutation. This fact, as will bo seen, is sns-
been lulgar. Dr, JulinsDii qnotos South, Bi^dou, imd Bp. BerkeUj
for it.
Put up Kith is B modiflcatioa of the old pvt i^,—as de au/ay mitk ii
moderuiied (torn do veay, — hLicU wai never ecomed by the vorj beet
writcra. Vide lupra, p. !i67.
Farther, u between these two eiprogaioni and eltn, where ii tha
proof that the liul wiu U nny time of general currcnoj' F And, eien
ir it had been, oa whftt grounds vuuld it have bjea hetler tu lierpetaate
eltm thun atame > Hunfftr-ttarre va» long uur rerb ; but sinoe, when
ttani deDotod the effvct of cold, the oontexl; indicated that denola-
tion, huHfir WAS rrgected from the compaund, becsuiie o( iU enper-
fluonsDVM. Flonllf, fiarvf, na now employed, bean, ve read, " a mis-
applied lenaa." The Anglo-Saxon itforfan bud a vagiior sense than
that which wo now give to its descendant; but it is no valid ubj»i^tioii
to the ealahliehed use of a word, that such ausewua aneeuiivitabliiilicd.
1 return to »(««■« (.*o«, «t the foot of p, 287, f"/™-
262 CHAPTER VIII.
ceptible of profuse illustration ; and, of the neoter-
isms awaiting specification in the sequel, though
Bome of them are several generations old, there are
others which have not yet attained the age of legal
majority.
After the lapse of nearly a century, during which
the labour hestowed in regularizing and modulating
our language had operated not only to impoverish
it, but to check its growth, whether from within or
from without, various causes gradually concurred to
restore something of its old-time fecundity. In date,
this new era tallied, to all material intents, with that
memorable assertion of popular rights which realized
itself in the American and French Revolutions.
When priestcraft was, for a considerable portion of
Christendom, extingiiished by the Eefoitnation, the
first great change which the languages of Europe
have undergone since the period of the Crusades,
immediately followed. The impulse which produced
this change had, however, exhausted itself some time
before the practical protest against kingcraft, and
the new birth of science, both which signalized the
era of the Third George, again stimulated mental
activity to devise adequate expressions for new facts,
and things, and thoughts. As might have been ex-
pected, the first experiments in the way of develop-
ment, revival, and appropriation, of words, were, ia
many instances, infelicitous. But not so, by any
means, were all. It ia to the age of Burke, and of
his fellow-hheralists who came just after him, that
we are beholden for the active verbs grow* and locate;
HODERNIBHE) BXEHFLIFIES. XaA
for the neuter verbs attach^ emigrate, and roci/crale;
tor enactment, immigrant, and requisition ; for compli-
pniB used as a traiiBitive vorb, in Hew Kit){land; and the ear revolts
at the prnclke."
Dr. Webater, whatevar his ear and its decisions, would hoTo ehowti
prudence by not talUng about iberu.
' Attach, co«PUJtENT*iii, l-on
CREDIT, ABVOCATB, NOTICE, A
EDIIOATIONAI, WFLUBNTUl, INmiCAt,P*
KUL, COMPETE, KARBATB, BTABVATION, TOUT, rSVfELL.
Attach.— Tt^ tah'btii not yet, I believe, talcen its place in any Dio-
tionary. It U used by Burke (17B1J, Coleridge (17S9), William Taylor
(1B03), Cbarlea Lamb, H. T. Colebrooke, Bisbup Heber, Sir Waller
Scott, Soothey, Sydney Smith, Lord Macanlay, Mr. Db Qnincey, Dr.
If evman, Mr. Buskin, &c. &c. Gtmerally it is roUowed by to. SuC I
Rud upon, also, after it. Bee Paley, A I'ievj of the Evidentes, &c.
(179*), Vol, l; p. 337 (ed. 1807) : Benlbam, Worh, Vol. 2, p. *09.
Complimaitary. — ComplimfUal was its precursor. Vidt luj/ra, p.
.eot
2-22.
(.of c
i amploytd in
the d.^fi
The predecessor of elmfliletitiiil was coiffiileril:
an acceptation now disused.
" I had given notice In a companion of mine, a eanJiiltHt lervant of
niy masters, that be ehonlii stay there waiting for me." Uabbe, Thi
Rogue (1623), Part 1, p. 178.
For another inalanec, seo William Becher (1808), in Gul. Camdmi
Fl Illuat. rir. ad G. C. Epist., p. 101.
U bting iuill. — Add^ ' to eimtmil one's self ; 'lo eracic a whip' ;
' to fut a person'; 'done tip', for "tired out' ; 'to piah an inmatiga-
tioii ' : 'to laki thami Id one's self ; ' to VDt« one a bore '.
Aem'idit.—Cwfei wrote, in 1793 : " I am hotter pleaaed, indeed,
tliut he censures some things, than I should have been nith unniiied
eummendation ; for his ocnauro will — to use tbe new diplomatic
tiirm, — teeredit his praises."' ff'orii, VoL 7, p. 187.
As Arobdeneon Todd shows, accredit is used by Sbelton, in hia trans-
bilion of Boh Quiiotf.
Where we use accredit, our forefatbers long used credit.
" I made it my chiefe happinesse, and plaeed a kinde of Miritie
therciH, that my actions might nidit my profession," &o. Mabbe,
The Siyut (lfi23). Part I, p. 108.
" I insert the word We, not to trrdit myself, but lo conflnn tho
render." Fuller, 2%« Apf»i, kn. ^LQ&a\'Guft.%,'t.%t..
OHAPTEB Tin.
B.«e»iary,' coiifideniial,
expressions -"- "
, and inferential; and for the
aieaij wifh and is being built} The
I
" Thua .... (ho authority of vrhiub tranelstioii a abunduntly en-
dittd and aasattad by its boing quoled in the New Tealament," Ha.
Gkavill,£Moyj, 4d. (1676), VI., _ ""
" Suoh a aUte of things .... eriiilelh the Chuioh, and graoeth m
liginn." Barrow, Worki, Vol. 3, p. 260.
Also Me Milton, iVow Worki (Bohn'a «d,), VoL 2, p. i
Till, Sttpaia Seimtijiea, pp. 36, 87, &c.: Henry Mora, MgtCefff of-'^
Gtdlinsu, p. 368.
With Che best writeia of our ago, tho acoeptation of aceredil U * Ib-
Test with credit or aathority ', to which maj bo iwided its diplomatio
lenae, 'actld witli letters crodeatial'. Dr. Webster's Editors give
i.tllree definitions of it. The first is: "To give trust or confidence
to ", which is neither English aor intelligible. In the senttince which
>fhey quote In. illustration, the word is badly used for 'recognize',
• acknowledge '. The second definition is : "To receive, as an euvoy,
in hii public charoctiir, and gire him credit and rank sccordingly."
~ then named; but I should be much surprised, if it wore
shown that his meaning baa not been miataken. in one passage, I
Jmow, Burke seams 1^ mteiii],bj accredited, simply 'poaaesaing credit',
authoritutife ', 'intrinsically infiuential'.
" France, in effect, has no king, nor any minister accredited enough,
aither with the court or nation, to undertake a. design of great magni-
tude." A letter to the Marquie of Eackitijiham, 1777.
Now-a-days, few eicept very bad writers employ it, after the man-
T of Sonthey, Sir Walter Scott, &c., aa a robust substitute for crsdit
or Uiieti
" For llio charge ot Arianism there may, then, have been at least a
plausible foundation. la there any ground for that of Manicheism f
Robinson, in ncendiiing it, fortifies himself with the anthori^ of
Limborch", £c. Suuthey.TAe Quarterly Anvi'fic, Vol. 33 (162S],p. 144.
" In the history of this remarkable man, nothing is more remark-
ahlE than hia Toracioua credulity. He accredited and repeated atorios
of apparitions, and witchcraft, and poesession, so silly, aa well as
monstrous, that they might have nauseated the coarsest appetite for
wonder," &e. Id., Life of Wealey (ed. 1864), Vol, 2, p. 198. Also
see Etjays Moral and Political, Vol. 1, p. 293. And I might givv
lerous other references to Soathey.
But Mrs. Martha Belthune Buliol, oonscioua that, in case of eon-
ion, she could never have prevailei] upon herself to dethrone the
ling of Talestine from the atone benoh on which he sat for hours,
milting Ms stocking, refused, by acoreditiiiy the intelligence, cvi'n to
Alio upon biatrial," &o. Sic Walter Scott, Ckronielei of the Cum
HUOIiSIIISUB EXEHFIJ7IZD. 2oO
active verbs accredit,' advocafe,'-a.iid notice;'^ the neuter
verbs fflffe,' mililate,' and progress;'^ with entire-
Mr, De Qiiineey makes aeeredit signify ■ oredit ', ' truBt ', ' eateeni ',
&c. &c. Sm hia Worii, Vol 1, pp. *7, 287 ; Vol. 5, p. 137 ; Vol. 11,
p. 211 ; Tol. Vi, pp. 80, IBS. In Vol. 12, p, IBS, it ia used correctly.
Adeaeats. — " Freely to advomte my own astrology." Nssb, Zcnica
StHffs (1598), in The Sarltian MiMtllany (ed, Oldya and Purlt), Vol
6, p. H8.
" To adeotati the came of tljy client". Bishop Sandarson (1021),
SfrmBHi, Vol. 1, p. 103 (ed. 1681),
I need not qnoto Milton for ndtmeate, v.a, Coluridge TontureJ it
in ISOO. See Emaifi on Bis (htH Timm. p. 40(1. And lie had heea
preceded by Burko. Tet Soulhey, in 1822, and even later, dcriiled
this verh as an AmericaniBni. Lord Mscaulajr uses it.
FranMin, writing to Dr. Webat«r, Deo. 26, 1788, objects to the
Terha active arfiweofe and Holiee, to the neuter ^-oprfM, and to the ex-
pression DfijKMBif fa, as in, 'to he cp^irif fo a meBsnre'. Frivalt Cur-
rnpimdinee (ed. 1817), p. 128.
Advoeatf, as a Terb neuter, ia adll to be recovered by onr leii-
coffrapherB. Here are references for it. Hcylin, Ecclaia Vindieala
(16-57), Tart 1, p. 77 r Examen ffiXonnim {165S), Part I, pp. 173.
179, 190. Fnller, Tie Appeal of Injured Iimoctva (1659), Part 1,
pp, 11,47; Part 2, pp. 20, 80 ; Part 3, p. 81.
To tho verb adtioealt, and other old norda, as lupposed American-
iame, I hope to reenr at some future time.
Ifolier. — Its antiquit; has been demonstrated hy Malone and othsre.
Not until after its revival, I suppose, vae noticiahlt uduced from it.
Noticeable was used in 1751, by BichardBon, Sir CAarlei GrmidiMn,
Vol. 2, p. 33. For mnoticed, aea Edward Moore, Tlit Gaiaeiler [17S1),
Act 4.
Lwdor, in an inuiginary donversation, makes Dr. Johnson say Ic
Home Tooke: "I have remarked the preterite [of the verb mliea]
spell nalie'd, and by writers of reputation, in the beginning of this
century," Worki, Vo!. 1, p. 208.
Johnson, in his Dictionary, doca not know ihe verb nolice ; and of
its xlmost complete inuaitatioa at the time he is fabled to specify, 1:
Agr.'-yialcxaori Holland has been quoted for it. Soulhey adduced it
from a modem book, in 180fi, See The A'iih'mI S/v<tui,\i,\.Z. p. 58S.
* By far the mo«t common aoceptation of the verb age is ■ show maika
of age' ; and tUs oocfptation is bnrno out by the quotations adduced
by Dr. WDbiter'a Editors, who, Iiowevcr, give the ileSnitiou '' to grow
ulil, to become aged," only.
I btra q,iioted,f« tiia«^at^«.^<^'^
[ ty,'^ financier, requirement, factttolaUty ; aai adulalorff,
' educational' influential,' inimical,' patriotic,' picto-
in IfiTo. But it wns used earlier. " Certain I am, that tho discourse
of ClemeilB, in the esid Epistle, doth mililate aswell against the one Ita
I agiinst tlie oilier." Heylio, The Sulorj/ of Epitcupaty (16ST)> I'arC
I 2, p. i. Also see Furt I, p. 94.
I Prograi. — " From Ambition and Avariea, hia suborner, let me pra-
I gnu to the second son of I'lide, which is Vain-glorj." Nash, Chriii'a
Temrt over Jeruialem (lfi94), p- 102 (in Are&aica, Vul. I).
" And this is as furre as I alloned m^ discourse tu ptogreim in this
way." □□one. Binihanaloi, p. 213 [first ed., undated}.
""Wee progreme in the wayes of vic«, and ace conitant in nothing
but perpetnall offending.'' Feltbam, Eeaohma, &e. (cd. 1628), SecoDd
Centurie, p. S4.
Trogresi, the verb noutor, long erroneously called an Americanism,
has shifted ila BDccnt, in becnming modem English. -That we should
bava a verb corresponding to the aubataiitiva prugren ia, certainly,
desirahlo. If it had not been urgently desiderated, it would never
hsTO attained its present very general preralenoe.
Enliteli/.— Vide lupra, p. 43. Educational. — Vide lupra, p. 131.
i^wilr'ai.—GlanTill is quoted, for it, hy Dr. Johnson. Sec, for in-
stances, his Estagi, &c. (1676), VI., p. 10: SadduciiMut TriumpAattu
(ed. ITST), p. 10. I add other rorBr«ncee. Gaule, nSg-iiayria (16S2],
pp. 3, 49, S3, 77, 136, 137, See. ; iafiuenlially, p. 07. Adj. Barrow,
Worki, Vol. 1, p. 143 ; Vol. % p. 168 ; Vol. 3, pp. 32, 254, 370 : J
TfealiK of Ihi Fope'i Sapremacy, (lc. (ed. 1683), p. 140. Samuul
Bichardson (17S4), Correspandcnee, Vol. 3, p. 216. Jonea, of Mayland
(bflf. 1760 P), Theological and Miictllatieoua IFori; Vol. 1, p. 145 ;
Vol. 5. p. 1.
In the early years of this century, iti^vential was denounced as an
Americanism; and Englishmen aoaaidiugly felt in duty bound to shun
it. In Tlie Edinburgh EtvieMi.'V'A. 28(1817), p. 277, it is objaclfd
to in Franklin, and is called " Franch, rather th^i American",
When was it over French ?
Such a render oi old English as Coleridge ought, however, to have
known the word tu be a revived archaism ; and very likely he was quite
aware of it« being so. Hie preaumable reason for substituting i'h-
Jliuniiivi, or injliintiive, we may well smile at. But mptriencim It not
the adjective which, through dislike of the ambiguity of erpirimailal,
ho ohose to flt to ixpirietee. Naturally enoagb. he gave the prefer-
ence to ei'prri'ni'rrt/. ¥oT ittfiiuncivi, ka., 'sea Thf FHcnd (eA 1818),
Vol, 2, p. 116 : Leiten, &e. (1836), Vol. 1. p. 167 ; Vol, 2, p. 224.
Unii\fitaiieivi occurs in hi» Lai/ Sermons. From Etiayi on Bit Ou'H
rial,^ Inifh/it!,' were, at tlie same period, resuscitated,
after long oblivion ; and comjiele,' convaksce, narrate,^
starvation,^ toul,^ and unwell^ were cited from pro-
Timtt, pp. 91, 616, 642, wa learo th&t hs used, in IT9S, iKfiimitial,
but, in IS09, injlue%civc and iNriimHiiu.
Inimuni. — This word oonatB in Gaule, JlBg-iiovrla, pp. S6, ISO.
For early osea of it in the last eeatury, see Samuel Richardson (ITfiS),
Corrapondenre, Vol. 5, p. 189: Sleme (1^82), Triilraia Shandy, Yal.
6, Ch. 35. I forbeai lefereaces to Jones of Nayland, Falej, and Uodwiu.
Enmiaiu is entered in the FrampiBriiim Fareulorum, and ia used bj
Fox, in hid Aati and Moaumeats. Dr. Richardson quotes Ereljn fuv
inimieaun. SteroB nses inimicitiaHi. See a letter (1760) to Warbnr-
ton, in A Stiselioii, &c., p. 213 ; and Tristram Shaiidif, ToL 4, Cb.
23 (1701).
For leveral rashly confldent atalcments w to the age of miinical, eee
Dr. Worcester's Siclionari/. Archbishop Trentb really seems lo attaeb
some credit to the atalernenl, that Burke flrat used this word, Bta
JEufflith, Fait and Fraeal (ed. 18S9], p. 71. Dr. Worcester sliona
tbaC it was recoRBiied by a Dictionary in 1678.
Faeriolic.— ride infra, p, 317, note 3.
Pitlorisl, — Dr. Johnson quotes Sir Thomas Browne for pitloriiil,
on which he remarks : " A nord not adopted by other writers, but ele-
gant and usflful." His definition is : " Produced by a painter." Wbat
we intend by pittoriai critically demands — as we have nature and tut-
lural—pictural, which Spenser usea, as a subatandve, fur ' picture '.
Truthful. — I hare been Tiolentlj assailed for using this "Ameri-
Compftf, — This rerb, nauseated and ridiculed, within the memory
of living men, as a Srolticism, (a now universally used, and without the
slightest conBcioueness, on the part of ninety-nine persona in a hundred,
that it is not hi old ai Shakespeare, or older. Compititim has sprang
up during the lost thirty or forty years, I believe.
Narrate. — Vide tupm, p. 121.
SlarmlieH.^Thit Uan old Scotticiem, as has been abundantly de-
monstrated. ArchbiBhop Trench once roundly asserted: "The word is
an Americanism." He wished it to be bo, no doubt ; and bia wish was
foundation enough, is Buoh a matter, fur a bet. Hishaste and ignorance
were pointed out ; and what then P " Soma bare supposed it to have
reiiehed as from America.'' English, Peat aad Freienl (cd. 1859), p.
But who wore the"Bome"? The Archbishop aelf-pluralized f
And is the auppoaition of those " some " itill to be respected ! Many
other questions might bo asked; and all hecBase we are fobbed off
vUk that style ol evasiveueBs— a not uausual grudwl t^C mxKKfiM
vincia] or tochnical obscurity, to render suit and
service to the great English-speaMng public. Then,
too, it was that appreciate,^ base, deoompo»e, deteriorate,
disorganize, mngnelise; with demarcation, grade,^ and
publicist; eventual, industrial, monetary, and respect-
able,'' were welcomed from abroad, or'deyised on fo-
reign models ; and in their train came monstrositiea
on the type of aristocrat, democrat,^ ideology, and par-
hnmility and unapnatolio inoome, — whioh historj' has tanglit the
wicked tu rocognizu na diatinctivulir eoclaiieiticial.
Tsvt.— Vi^ lupre, foot of p. 13*.
OnionU. — Vide tiipra, pp. \U, 126.
* Landor flelitioaaly rapreaenla Home Tonke oa aajinj to Dr.
jDlinaon : " Only nno valuable word haa been recoived into out lan-
^Qge since aij birtb, or, perhaps, aince yours. I liave lately heard
«pprecitile, for 'estimata'.'' Warki, Vol. I, p. !6o.
Lord Chesl«rfield used appraiate in 1766. See The World, No.
196.
Appreeiatian aaetoa to ba older, with ua, than appraiati. H ia
used by Henry Mors, Amiolaliiiiii upott ' Ziix Oriaitaiii,' Sec (1BS2-3),
p. 2es.
> ridt mpra, p. 129.
' I do nut knov uf any English authority earlier than Burke, for
this word. It was Fretiph, but as n neoteriam, in 1603. So a»yi
Caillif^re, as rererred to by HI. Lorfdan Laiche;, in Zta Excenirieitii
da Langage [od. 1863), p. ti.
Unrespectable waa used in 1778, by Henry Brooke, in Tim OiHlmd-
ing Brill hen.
? Hobb«s — see my Rsami SxempUfieaUom, Ac., p 7* — uses d ma
fvalieat as a snlatantive \ and thia, or demna-al da with
analogy. Compare critic, mechanic, mimie, &o. B k n d h a
claaaical instinct, when, in preforenca to deinncral, h t rpd lim
ei-atial, which may be derived directly from iij/io p u h n
favour of democracy',
By rule, arislocral, presupposing dpiarotpiir^i;, — from apicro-
tfiarii-i, — ahonld mean 'ruling in the beat manner', or 'ruling by-
means of the beat', &c, ; and Jij/ioitporijs, demBcral, ahonld mean
'mling by the peopio', 'ruling for the people', 'ruling orer tha
people ', ic. Both the Greek adjectiveB might be suhstttnlivizcd.
iilltoipaTmnt, as a substantive, means eiaotly what the French in-
tend by tbeir d^mocraU, whence our dcmonrat, Ikmecralie nnd aria-
atf»tie QH^ tp Itave heen out «ah«t«n.tiTU.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 289
alysCy^ which, with grandiose ^ and stand-point, would
much better have been left at home. Such are a
few of the numerous innovations which we owe to
our more recent predecessors. The licences of lan-
guage which they allowed themselves are similar, in
kind, to those that mark the history of English in
all its bygone stages ; but their quantity is incom-
parably greater than that which was generated
during the interval spanned by the death of Milton
and the supremacy of Johnson. Our grandfathers,
insensible to what extent, in subjection to the bias
of the age, they practically disregarded purism, de-
ferred, theoretically, to the teachings of their sires,
and industriously inculcated it. More alive than they
to the peculiar demands of the intellectual activity
which distinguishes our century, our fathers, a few
adherents to the ancestral cult excepted, rather left
the old idol to the moles and the bats, and, with
or without set purpose and design, brought forth
fruits which would not have shamed the most de-
liberate verbiculture. If or is the present generation
any more disposed than the last was, to profess
fealty to a fusty and fantastic superstition. As
in the order of nature generally, so in language,
No less bad than democrat are William Taylor's and Coleridge's
physiocrat, and Southey's pantisocrat, instead of which Lord Macaulay
has pantisocratist. * Vide supra, "p, 174, note 4.
^ This word b so much needed, that its being a malformation is the
more to be deplored. We took it from the French, before whom,
however, the Italians had educed grandioso from grandis, against all
law. Yet we ourselves, long ago, did just as ill, in shaping illustrious
out of illustris or illustre. And just like illustrious is our forefathers'
enormious, — from enormis or enortne, — ^which we are not to account
singularly morutruous, as the same forefathers wrote, very allowably*
19
290 • CHAPTER VIII.
there obtains the law of incessant decay and in-
cessant compensatory renewal. Some words, do
what we may to retain them, will fall out of
sight ; and other words, do what we may to inter-
cept or resist them, will emerge, and win their way
to acceptance. The former fade and vanish away,
because they have served out their turn ; the latter
spring up obediently to influences of which it is im-
possible to forecast the products. The vicissitudes of
language are, thus, a thing over which our volitions
rarely have a calculable control. Truisms as they
are, these facts, if duly weighed, should suffice to
dissuade from that unfavourable opinion of modem
English, on which so many pique themselves, as
being a proof of their sagacity, or more refined
taste. Moreover, freely as we of the nineteenth cen-
tury neoterize, it must be indubitable to any obser-
vant student of English, past and present, that,
relatively to their amount, new words, and new mean-
ings of old words, have been scrutinized much more
jealously, during the last seventy years, than they
ever were scrutinized before. In presence of this
truth, it strikes one with surprise to come upon the
assertion, from a scholar like Landor,^ that " our lan-
guage, for the last half-century, has fallen more
rapidly into corruption and decomposition than any
other ever spoken among men." ^
1 JForkSy Vol. 2, p. 164.
' Would that pessimists could learn to stifle their flatulent lamenta-
tions. Listen to another, one who, for all his unctuous clutter, is, cer-
tainly, the most mechanical of contemporary prelates. " Surely, in a
degree which, perhaps, was never hefore equalled in the history of man-
kind, worldliness, in its most intense activity, is around us, and so must
threaten our souls.*' Bishop Wilberforce, Sermofu, &c., Second
Series (1863), p. 268.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 291
To follow the ruling fasliion of the present time, I
am aware that I ought to depreciate modern English,
and, if not sit in the seat of the scornful, at least
assume sackcloth and ashes, for its multiplied trans-
gressions. There are those, however, who, like the
writer of these pages, with as little fear of being
counted unfashionable as care to be counted fashion-
able, distinctly avow an exceedingly good opinion of
the language, taken for all in all, of the days on
which we have fallen.^ Though our contemporaries
produce much of bad and inferior writing, they pro-
duce much more which, in various degrees, up to the
highest, is excellent. And so deems the most pro-
ficient stylist that our literature, taken in its fullest
compass, can hitherto boast. " This ", says Dr.
Newman,^ " is not a day for great writers, but for
Let us give ear, for a moment, to another croaker.
*' The prevailing opinions of this age go to the destruction of every-
thing which has hitherto been held sacred. They tend to arm the poor
against the rich ; the many against the few : worse than this, — fur it
-will also be a war of hope and enterprise against timidity, — of youth
against age The fact is undeniable, that the worst principles
in religion, in morals, and in politics, are, at this time, more prevalent
than they ever were known to be in any former age." Southey,
Colloquies, &c. (ed. 1831), Vol. 1, pp. 31, 32.
This was written in 1829 ; and, since gentlemen of the old school
maintain that the world goes on steadily from bad to worse, how
intensely rotten the present generation must be,— the children of the
corruption thus wailfully depicted !
^ Part of my thesis resembles that of Godwin, who, in 1797, wrote
his Essay on English Style, " to shew that the English language was
never in so high a state of purity and perfection as in the present reign
of King George the Third." The Enquirer, pp. 369, 370.
Further on, Godwin asserts, and with perfect truth, *< that the ordi-
nary standard of elegant composition, at the present day, is superior to
the standard of English composition at any preceding period." Ibid.,
p. 472.
2 While never shrinking from a useful neoterism, whether borrowed
292 CHAPTER VIII.
good writing, and a great deal of it. There never
was a time when men wrote so much, and so well,
or extemporized, Dr. Newman, when writing at his best, comes nothing
short of Addison, for grace, and, for correctness, is incomparably his
superior. It is no secret, that he composes with great rapidity ; and
occasionally we meet, in him, with a sentence which a moment's labour
would have enabled him to amend materially. Nor, considering his
taste, his matchless command of expression, and his perfect clearness
as to his meaning, is there any ground for apprehension, that, if he used
the file, he would use it otherwise than as a master. Briefly, his eloquence
is that of nature, improved by the highest culture, and insensibly con-
trolled by the most liberal and rational principles as to the true pur-
pose of language. Uis antipodes are not far to seek ; and the general
reader will not require to be reminded of that nebulous and painful
anabaptist, the Rev. John Foster, or of Archbishop Trench, and his
agonizing contortions, or of Mr. De Quincey, with his perpetual chal-
lenge to pause and wonder at his superfine affectations.
Having studied nearly every line of Dr. Newman's voluminous
writings, I am surprised to find how little there is in them, as regards
words and uses of words, to arrest unfavourable attention. Directly,
in the sense of * as soon as *, one may have a personal dislike of ; but,
after all, it may simply anticipate on the English of the future. Assist,
for * be present ', still has a foreign air about it. Realize^ meaning
* think of as real ', smacks of the slang of pietists. Ere^ for * before ',
belongs to the diction of poetry. Notwithstanding ^ for * nevertheless %
is careless ; and so is has drank. * Neither A nor B are ' is archaic.
On the long run is eccentric. Dement , harass^ and make-belief are
strange substitutes for demented^ harassment, and make-believe. Indul-
gence we hardly need, as a verb active ; and as little do we need the
verb neuter passage. Elsewhere I have taken exception to one or two
peculiarities of Dr. Newman's phraseology, not here specified.
Let us now turn to another writer of high and deserved repute, the last
of our really well-informed lingual conservatives. Like Dr. Newman,
Lord Macaulay uses assist for * be present *. His dead-born for * still-
born ', whittle for * knife ', and observation of the Sabbath for * observ-
ance of the Sunday *, whatever they once were, are not now English,
but Scotch. RisJlesJier for * butcher ', and twaddle for 'twaddler',
have always belonged, I believe, to the north of the Tweed. His use
of parts for ' talents ', and his verb active pleasure, with * neither A nor
B are*, and his democratical, prosaical, and several similar forms, are
archaisms which have an appearance of quaintness in modem writing.
His embowel, for * disembowel ', is scarcely more tolerable than dis-
annul. As little deserving of imitation is his loose employment of m-
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 293
and that without being of any great account, them-
selves. While our literature, in this day, especially
the periodical, is rich and various, its language is
elaborated to a perfection far beyond that of our
classics, by the jealous rivalry, the incessant practice,
the mutual influence, of its many writers. In point
of mere style, I suppose an article in the Times news-
paper, or Edinburgh Review y is superior to a preface
of Dryden's, or a Spectator, or a pamphlet of Swift's,
or one of South's sermons." ^
To specify all our words of recent introduction or
resuscitation would take me far beyond what I now
attempt. To give samples of them is quite as much
as I can undertake, particularly since I go back, for
modernisms, as far as 1760,^ the first year of the
Third George. Nor is the limit here fixed wholly
arbitrary ; for any one who has studied our language,
with reference to its changes since the death of
Milton, must acknowledge that my limit answers,
roughly, to a fact of history. It was not far from
1760, that the rage for impoverishing and emasculat-
ing English received a check, and the feeling began
to revive, that novelty was not necessarily synon-
ymous with barbarism, and might consist even with
finitely^ a word which, in rigid propriety, should be restricted to
matters of physical science, theology, and pure nonsense. Lord
Mncaulay's hemean^ and his application of the term ** missile weapon "
to a musket, I have already animadverted on. For the first, see my
Recent UxempliJicaeionSf &c., p. 105, note 2 ; for the other, supra^ foot
of p. 171.
^ Lectures and Essays on University Subjects (1859), pp. 112, 113.
2 Some few of the words enumerated in the following pages had
been proposed, and even sparingly used, before that date, — and even
long before it ; — but, to the best of my recollection, none of them,
till a later period, attained anything like popularity.
294 CHAPTER vm.
elegance. More explicitly, from about that time we
are to date the influence, on our language, of Johnson
and of Burke,— of both, as reformers, and of the
latter, at an after-period, as an intrepid innovator. To
the lessons, all the more salutary for their difference
of tenor, which they practically taught, we are to
attribute, in no small measure, the extinction of the
old literary creed, that to imitate the easy flow of
Addison, or of Middleton, should be a writer's high-
est ambition.
Ages have elapsed since the specific type of our
language, as we now possess it, was fixed definitively ;
and the accessions to our vocabulary, of which
account is here taken, in no respect differ, as to
general character, from the verbal stores accumulated
by our predecessors during several preceding cen-
turies. The development presented in the modern
locution is being built is fully matched by the inven-
tion of its ^ in the days of Queen Elizabeth ; but,
these extreme and disparate instances of innovation
apart, we of later times have neoterized precisely in
the same direction with all our ancestors since the
Reformation. The neoterisms about to be adduced,
taken with those noted in other parts of this treatise,
will, probably, be esteemed sufficient, on comparison
with our older words, to establish the soundness of
this position. Nor less will they demonstrate, that,
when circumstances call for them, new expressions
are certain to be devised, and, in proportion to their
utility, are certain to be adopted.
Among our neoteric verbs, those in -ize are exceed-
^ See a note on this word, in the Appendix.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 295
ingly numerous. Demoralize, by whomever intro-
duced into English, was soon found to be indis-
pensable.^ Eynphasize certainly has nothing of the
1 Dr. "Webster, we are told, claimed to have first employed demoralize.
It is " bad enough in structure," says the Rev. Mr. 451ackley, in his
Word Gossip^ p. 188. This impracticable rigour of criticism applies to
many other verbs which careful and learned writers have deemed allow-
able, and reminds one of the ostracizing rage of Home Tooke ; for,
in the list of several hundred most useful words which he would have
turned out of our language, are acoustics, fragile, horticulture, putative^
synoptical, trend, venial. Among recent coinages similar to demoralize
are debarbarize, debrutalize, dece^itralize, deckristianize, decivilize, de-
eonservatize, dematerialize, demonarchize, denationalize^ denaturalize, de^
paganize, dephysicalize, depoliticalize, dereligionize, devitalize.
These words may be connived at ; but that eminent scientist. Pro-
fessor Huxley, puts philological patience to a severe test, where he
writes that ** this immense fauna of Miocene Arctogsea is
shrunk and depauperized in North Asia," &c. Critiques and Addresses
(1873), p. 206. Depauperize ought, regularly, to mean something
like the reverse of pauperize. The analogy of deininuere we have
not, hitherto, availed ourselves of.
In many'places, the learned Professor, following a bad lead, also
uses the verb atikylose, — as he spells, somewhat improving on the anchy-
lose of sundry other biologists. Ancylose I forgot, when speaking
of its better-known kindred, anastomose and diagnose. To those who
are able to accept it, I would certainly offer aneylosize,
A third word used by the Professor seems to be one of those which
have been coined by himself. I mean homotaxis, which, he tells us, at p.
183, ** has not, so far as I know, found much favour in the eyes of geo-
logists." Perhaps these gentlemen are beginning to study Greek.
Homotaxis is impossible : homotagia, or — which is better for us, and
defensible,— Aowo^oicia, homotaxy, is the eligible fonn ; and the
adjective already assigned to homotaxis, homotaxial, fits it no less well
than homotactic.
Nor, because he may write epigenesis, is he authorized in writing
abiogenesis, biogenesis, heterogenesis, homogenesis, xenogeftesis, instead
of abiogenesia, &c. Such coinages are scientistic, rather than scientific.
If, at p. 38, supra, I did not stop to condemn hamatemesis, it was
because modem medical writers, as cormptionists, seem to be incorri-
gible, and because it matters very little, in general, whether their
technicalities are normal or abnormal. Etematemesia and haememesia
represent Greekish inventions which obey analogy. The Tagliacotian
operation b not to be extended from surgery to philology ; and profane
296 CHAPTER VIII.
air of a novelty ; and yet it is as modem as it is use-
ful. Liberalize cannot, I suspect, be traced further
back than to the time of Burke.^ The modern
deflection of the sense of realize,^ — a deflection which
doctors may well take a leaf from the book of their sacred brethren,
who never fail of ruthless grammatical exactness, in fitting a new
heresy with its appropriate designation.
* The substantives liberal and liberalism are much more recent.
" The celebrated Marquis of Lansdowne introduced a useful word,
which has, of late, been warmly adopted in France, as well as in Eng-
land, — to liberalize.** Isaac B'Israeli, Curiosities of Literature, History
of New Words.
2 *' Yet, even these are much concerned to realize the brevity and
uncertainty of their present state, that they may be stimulated to
make the most and the best of it." Rev. John Newton (1775), Cardi-
phonitty Letters to a Nobleman, No. 18.
Dr. Newman, Essay on Ecclesiastical Miracles, pp. 73, 75, 125.
Bishop Wilberforce, Addresses, &c. (ed. 1860), p. 153. Mr. J. S.
Mill, On Liberty (people's edition, 1865), p. 25. With these refer-
ences, others, to the Rev. Henry Martyn, Lord Teignmouth, Dr. Pusey,
Mr. E. A. Freeman, &c. &c., might be given.
On considering the subjoined passages, one will see how easily
realize came by its latest sense.
"His fancy only placed Caesar so continually in his eye, that it
realized him to his imagination ; and he believed he saw him." De
Foe, T/^e FoliticAl History of the Devil (ed. 1840), p. 262.
" All joy or sorrow for the happiness or calamities of others is pro-
duced by an act of the imagination, that realizes the event, however
fictitious, or approximates it, however remote, by placing us, for a time,
in the condition. of him whose fortune we contemplate." Dr. Johnson,
The Rambler, No. 60.
" To put these materials to poetical .u^, is required an imagination
capable of painting nature, and realizing fiction." Id., Life of
Milton.
" Particularly in the case of reputation, no man can, without pain,
realize, as to himself, the facility with which partialities are discarded,
friendships dissolved, and the man who was your warmest advocate
subsides into indifference or worse." Godwin, The Enquirer, p. 293.
Dr. Johnson's second definition of realize, but unsupported by a
quotation, is " convert into land." In the sense of * gain ', this verb
is " used in America", Dr. Worcester says. And so, for more than
half a century, it has been used in England.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 297
may, in part, be compared with that of the sense of
ascertain, — though not altogether in the best taste,
claims recognition in this place. Utilize, early, if
not originally, was ventured by the very epic Joel
Barlow, in his Columbiad. But the English-speak-
ing world was not yet ready, in the days of the
divine Joel, for a word which is now of universal
currency.^ And I might remark on acclimatize, actu-
alize, antagonize, antithesize, appetize,^ botanize, central-
ize, coalize, conventionalize, deodorize, differ entialize,
dissocialize, economize,^ eulogize, euphemize, Europeanize,
excursionize,^ feudalize, fluidize, focalize, fossilize, frater-
nize, generalize, geologize, lionize, localizcy maximize,^
mediatize, memorialize,^ metaphysicizie, minimize, mobil-
ize, mosaicize, mysticize^ fiationalize, neologize, oxid-
ize, pedestrianize, popularize, pragmatize, prodigalize.
" And is the money arrived at Mr. Webb's ? Send me an account
of the number of crowns you realize** Shelley (1819), Ussays, &c.,
Vol. 2, p. 237.
Southey used the expression " realize a maintenance **, in the last
century. See Letters, &c. (Bristol, 1797), p. 25.
^ Like demoralize, it was taken from the French ; and, doubtless, if
we had had, like them, an adjective utile, in addition to our utility,
utilize would have been less slow than it wa? in obtaining naturaliza-
tion. See, further, p. 128, supra, text and note 9.
* Vide supra, foot of p. 132. •
* Archdeacon Todd wrote, in 1818 : *'Both in French and English,
[this word is] of very recent usage.** £conomiser was then at least a
century old.
* Excursionize was very soon suggested by excursionist. Exeurse,
as a verb neuter, is used by Richardson, in Clarissa Harlowe, Vol. 3, p.
71 ; as a verb active, by Hallam. Charles Lamb has the verb neuter
excursion. See his Letters (ed. 1837), Vol 2, p. 181.
» In The Quarterly Beview, Vol. 18 (1818). p. 129, exception is
taken to the following words, used by Bentham : annuulity, trietmiality,
benejicialness, undangerousness, knowable, maximization, minimization.
* Vide supra, foot of p. 171.
298 CHAPTER Vlll.
puritanize, rationalize, reorganize, revolutionize, ritualize,
sectarianize, sentimentalize, soherize,^ soliloquize, subside
ize, systematize, terrorize, theorize, totalize, tranquillize,
victimize?
Demarcate ^ is, undeniably, a useful word ; for it is
idle to say that we have any synonym of it. Crimi-
nate was well worth reviving ; and isolate * we could
ill part with. Itinerate^ is now freely employed,
where Jour net/ would be inadequate. Originate, in its
active sense,* was, while novel, violently attacked,
simply because of its novelty. Modem verbs, similar,
as regards termination, to the foregoing, are seen in
1 Lord Lytton, The Caxtom (1-vol. ed., 1856), p. 262. But Rich-
ardson used the word long ago. See Clarissa Harlowe, Vol. 4, p. 245.
* For more such verbs, vide supra, foot of p. 174, and foot of p.
194.
3 The Editors of Dr. Webster's Dictionary pronounce demarcate
to be •' rare ". What can be their acquaintance with modem literature ?
Bemarkj though it is not very uncommon, they do not insert at all.
As to demarcation^ following Dr. Webster, they take the liberty of
sophisticating Burke, in making him write demarkation.
* '* The affected, Frenchified, and unnecessary word isolated is not
English, and, we trust, never will be." So The British Critic, Oct.,
1800, as quoted by Archdeacon Todd, who adds : ** I fully agree with
the writer, in considering it as a most affected word.** The Archdeacon
does not, indeed, formally assent to the verdict, that it is " unneces-
sary " ; but his assent may be assumed. Everything new, just because
of its newness, seems to have been, in his opinion, superfluous.
* Cockeram gives this word ; but it hardly had a recognizable exist-
ence, until it was taken up by Wesley and his followers. Southey,
Mr. De Quincey, Bishop Christopher "W^ordsworth, and Mr. "NV. E.
Gladstone have lent it their countenance.
8 There is no reason why, like end, origin should not develop an
active verb, as well as a neuter ; and the termination of originate is as
appropriate to one sort of verb as to another.
Landor makes Dr. Johnson say : " Scholars will always say * The
measure originated /ro;» him'.'* Works, \o\, 1, p. 165. Neverthe-
less, scholars already have, in such a case, ofteii said with. And how
was the Doctor to see so clearly into the future ?
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 299
adulate^ affiliate^ annotate, centesimate, certificate, cir-
cumamhulate, differentiate, domesticate, equate, etiolate,
exfodiate, formulate, gyrate, intemate, jubilate, manipu-
late, methylate, migrate, orientate, perorate, potentiate,
rehabilitate,^ rubricate, spoliate, triangulate.^
Bank, that is to say, ' have certain dealings with a
banking establishment ', though very recent, appar-
ently, is one of those instinctive coinages which take
their place in a language, without provoking demur,
or even attracting attention as novelties. Classify
could not look more natural than it does, if it had
lived through a millennium ; and what should we do
without edit, fidget, identify, philander, photograph,
pirouette, and pooh-pooh ? Condone, an old legal tech-
nicality, has, of late, received a popular welcome, as
a stately euphemism for ' pardon ' or * overlook '.
Revolt, in the sense of 'provoke aversion in',
* shock V isj I believe, scarce a century old ; it being
a neoterism with Bishop Warburton, Horace Wal-
* This old law-term has been gaining ground ever since it was in-
troduced into popular discourse by Burke, to whom it may have been
suggested by the French rkhabiliter. Equally with its substantive,
rehabilitation^ it enables us to dispense with a tedious circumlocution.
Mr. E. A. Freeman calls rehabilitate a " cant word.'* Historical
Essays, Vol. 1 (ed. 1871), p. 329.
In the seventeenth century, our ancestors used reestate. Bishabilitatey
in 1827, Archdeacon Todd described as ** a word now in common use."
Who would now believe it }
' Sou they once uses the old verb difficult ate, a malformation.
' Archdeacon Todd has ^* turn ", which, as a definition, is vague and
inexact. His misdefinition shows how unfamiliar revolt, in its modem
sense, must have been to him. Yet even his quotations from Warburton
and Burke should have taught him its later meaning.
** What there is of a religious cast in the volume, I have thrown
towards the end of it, for two reasons ; first, that I might not revolt
the reader at his entrance, and, secondly, that my best impressions
might be made last." Cowper (1784), JForka, Vol. 6, p. 87.
300 CHAPTER VIII.
pole, William Godwin, and Southey. Sanction, it
will surprise most of my readers to be told, is not so
ancient as our republic. Shunt, a very old word, but
which, prior to the era of railways, was only an
obscure provincialism, is now known and used by
everybody, at least in England ; and even metaphor-
ical applications of it are by no means infrequent.
Supplement has firmly established itself, in spite of
the hostile criticism which it has evoked.* Test
appears to have slumbered a long while after the
days of Shakespeare. Our countrymen falsely have
the credit of reviving it ; ^ and it is now accepted
English again. Even such a purist as Lord Macau-
lay uses it more than once ; and it is found in the pages
of Dr. Arnold, Abp. Whately, Mr. De Quincey, Mr. W,
E. Gladstone, and Mr. E. A. Freeman. Worsen, both
as a verb active and as a verb neuter, was revived by
* Very thoughtlessly, it has been called anomalous. Exact parallels
to it are seen in scores of verbs, as fencSf Jioor, ornament, roof^ &c.
&c. For more such, vide supra, p. 75, note 1 ; and p. 169, note 2.
According to Mr. W. E. Gladstone, it had its birth in Scotland.
Financial Statement, &c. (1863), p. 442. It was not long in developing
supplementation, which is used by the Kev. Charles Kingsley, and also
by several writers of better repute.
Equally handy with the verb supplement is the verb interview^ which
is really needed, and has, already, been largely adopted. * To cable a
message ' is just as convenient, and deserves to become permanent.
2 " She cannot break through a well-tested modesty." Richardson,
Clarissa Marlowe, Vol. 3, p. 187.
" You have been sufficiently tested.*' Henry Brooke, The Fool of
Quality (1760), Vol. 1, p. 138'(ed. 1792).
** She shall be tested." Id., Antony and Cleopatra (1778), Act 4,
Scene 3.
" But I will test (as an American would say ; though, let it be
observed, in passing, that I do not advocate the use of Americanisms),
— I will test Mr. Campbell's assertion." Southey, The Doctor (1-vol.
ed.), p. 397
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 301
Southey and William Taylor, whose example in using
it has been followed by Mr. De Quincey, Mr. W. E.
Gladstone,^ and many others. After being good Old
English, it long had no vogue but provincial. It is
not surprising that those who write much should, if
they know the word, now and then feel deteriorate to
be weak in comparison. Among our modern miscel-
laneous verbs are, also, clerify, codify y countrify^ den-
sify, intensify, jellify, simplify, torpify; coarsen, hoarsen,
smarten; allowance, bracket, burke, caricature, chloro-
form, complement, comcribe, cuddle, deplete, deploy,^ dis-
bar, disestablish,^ disrate, drape, electioneer, engineer,*
enlist, evanesce, exchequer, excrete, exhume, facsimile,
flick, genuflect, ignore,^ improvise, levant, loot, malinger,
nag, paraph, patent, potter, quay, rat, recoup, scamp,
schedule, scrunch, silt, stockade, stoke, telegraph, tidy,
tour,^ tub, weary J
^ See Juventus Mundi (1869), p, 185.
' " A military word of modern times, hardly wanted in our language ;
for it is, literally, to * display '.'* Archdeacon Todd. This criticism is
characteristically Toddian.
' This verb, according to Dr. Webster's Editors, is " obsolete " ;
but such it never has quite been, since first it was coined; and now it
is in all English mouths. Disestablishment, likewise now very current,
was employed, by William Taylor, in 1806 : see The Annual Review y
Vol. 4, p. 264. It is not yet in any dictionary accessible to me. Dis-
endow is similarly unrecognized. The revived disestablish, and its
conjugates, with infallibilist, are striking instances of words suddenly
familiarized by popular interest.
* Cowper wrote, as long ago as 1781 : " Unless we engineered him
with question after question, we could get nothing out of him."
Works, Vol. 15, p. 64. •
* Vide supra, p. 118, note 1.
* In enumerating our neoterisms, it should be remembered that we
are to add, to our new verbs, the substantives and words of other parts
of speech that have grown out of them.
^ I mean the verb neuter. Rather than English, it long was Scotch,
but is now common, at least in conyersation. It is in no dictionary
302 CHAPTER VIII.
A few of our new substantives shall next be men-
tioned.
Analogue, like homologue^ we have to thank the
French for; and so convenient an expression we,
once possessing it, could hardly do without. Ante*
cedents^ for which, also, we are indebted to France,
that I know of. Miss Carter used it more than a century ago, in 1769.
" The spirit wearies with perpetual dissipation.*' Letters to Miss
Talbot, &c., Vol. 3, p. 379. Also see, for it, Dr. Newman, Lectures
and Essays on University Subjects (1859), p. 360.
^ Certain idly nice scholars hare preferred analogon and homologon.
If synagogue had, in their time, been struggling for recognition, no
doubt they would have voted for synagoge. Those who favour akm4
might as well favour charakter,
* Landor writes of ** what the French have lately taught us to call
his antecedents.** Sagaciously, he has no objection to offer. The
Last Fruit off an Old Tree, p. 176. Dr. Newman uses it in his Dis-
cussions and Arguments, &c., pp. 343, 385.
Mr. De Quincey calls antecedents, as now used, ^'modern slang''.
Works, Vol. 14, p. 449.
" The use of this word as in the question, * What do you know of
that man's antecedents ? ' is not defensible, except upon the bare plea
of mutual agreement. For, in meaning, it is awkward perversion ;
an4, in convenience, it has no advantage. . . . ; . But to call the
course of a man's life until the present moment his antecedents, is
nearly as absurd a misuse of language as can be compassed. And it
is a needless absurdity. For, if, instead of * What do you know of his
antecedents ? ' it is asked, * What do you know of his previous life ? *
or, better, * What do you know of his past ? ' there is sense, instead
of nonsense, and the purpose of the question is fully conveyed." Mr.
R. G. White, Words and Their Uses, pp. 91, 92.
What better plea, one would like to know, can there be for a word,
or for the use of a word, than "mutual agreement", or, in English,
* common agreement ' } Mr. White admits — which I cannot admit —
that a military general's official predecessors may correctly be styled
his antecedents ; and he grants the rationality of antecedents gram-
matical, logical, and mathematical. In every one of these cases, this
Latinistic term for * foregoers ' has its broad etymological sense special-
ized. It is simply a new specialization of this sense that Mr. White
resists, and calls " awkward perversion ", " needless absurdity ", "non?
sense ", and what not. He does not see, that his only real argument
consists in his general aversion to things which did not enjoy the ap-
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 303
IS not yet a generation old. It well deserved the
popularity winch it very speedily attained. Bestowal
and hestowment are words at which Dr. Johnson
probation of his grandfathers and grandmothers, in whose days an
" absurdity " may have been better than " needless", perhaps.
M. Wey is wroth with M. Cousin, for saying that Aristotle was
Kant's antecedent^ and remarks : " Ce substantif ne peat designer une
personne, et devenir synonyme de pre'de'cesseur, de pr^curseur, etc.*'
Remarques sur la Langvs Frangaise^ Vol. 2, p. 126.
We once had, for all the silence of the lexicographers, antecedent as
a personal agential.
" Hee *8 every thing, indeed, ....
My antecedent, or my gentleman usher."
Massinger, The City-madam, Act 2, Scene 2.
To return to Mr. White. Almost as often as this critic ventures an
appeal to reason, his readers may be certain that something raw is
imminent. In the new edition of Words and Their Uses, he takes ex-
ception to Lord Macaulay for writing : " Skinner, it is well known,
held the same political opinions with his illustiious friend ". On this
and other passages the comment is : ** Does the eminence of the
writers make such a use of language authoritative.^ Certainly not.
Here reason comes in, and sets aside the weight of authority, however
eminent Same expresses identity, and, therefore, cannot pro-
perly be used in correspondence to with, which means nearness, con-
tact, and implies duality, severalness."
Now, the very mention of "identity*' should have suggested
identical, which, a synonym of same, takes with, — the preposition after
one, also, another synonym of same. And * equal with* was once as
good as* equal to\ The propriety of Mr. White's "therefore", in
what he says about same, is one of the profound mysteries with which
his book abounds. Sometimes, *the same as* is preferable to *the
satne with ' ; but it is where a conjunction is indispensable ; and it is
not because of any particular relational import belonging to as.
Phrases, in many cases, must be accepted as wholes. - Lord Macaulay
disliked ellipses ; and .as, instead of his with, would necessitate one.
So we no longer say, except in church : " Because there is none other
that fighteth for us, but only thou, God." Further, if we may not
say same with, how, in propriety, can we say sameness with ? Mr.
White is, to be sure, benevolently disposed towards Lord Macaulay,
and would not excommunicate him for his " occasional lapses ", of which
he has exhibited what he accounts a specimen. His benevolence, in this
instance, may unhesitatingly be resumed for future expenditure.
304 CHAPTER VIII.
would have stood aghast, unless he had himself in-
vented them, or unless they could be pointed out in
some old author, which is unlikely. Both are ana-
logical ; but . no person with an ear will hesitate, for
a moment, to prefer the first. ^ Betray al, a more
euphonious form than betrayment, and quite as nor-
mal, has completely superseded it. Byron, Southey,
Dean Milman, and Archbishop Whately, with others,
have so accustomed us to this word, that it is difficult
to believe it the novelty it really is. Celebrity , medi-
ocrity, and notoriety have followed notability^ in be-
coming personal substantives. Cmtodian, as legiti-
mate a derivative as historian, or librarian, suggests,
much more immediately and exactly than keeper,
guardian, or superintendent, * one who has custody \
Decade, which began with denoting any ^ aggregate
of ten', has now come to mean ^decennium ' or 'space
of ten years ' ; ^ and learned writers so employ it.^
This new sense of the word has not yet attracted the
attention of our dictionary-makers ; nor has the new
sense of centenary, which, though it does not embody
annus, now signifies ' centennial celebration '.* Com-
1 *' Bestowment is preferable to bestowal^ on account of the concur-
rence of the two vowels in bestowal" Dr. Webster. What a reason !
* In the tirae of the great French Eevolution, the period of ten
days which was to take the place of the old week, was styled dkcade.
' Among them are Mr. De Quincey, Mr. J. S. Mill, Dr. Newman,
and Professor Huxley.
' * Centenary is used by Hakewill, — who has " centenary of years ",
also, as has Howell, in his Bodonds Grove, p. 76, — just as we have
come to use century. An Apologiey &c. (ed. 1630), pp. 49, 50, &c.
This use of centenary also occurs earlier, namely, in A World of Won-
ders (1607), pp. 229, 327, 331.
And here I may fitly note centenarian, with septuayefiarian, octo-
ffenarian, and nonagenarian, words unknown to Dr. Johnson. Neither
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 305
pare century, originally * aggregate of a hundred '
in general. Diplomatist ^ made its first appearance, I
suspect, only fifty or sixty years ago. Enlighten-
ment is, to this day, always used, by a certain class
of English writers, with a manifest sneer. The
writers referred to are those who would rather have
been bom under the rule of barons than under the
inchoate rule of reason, and would gladly exchange
the age of science for the ages of faith and folly.
Those who object to the word will ordinarily be found
to object to all that it stands for. Executive is al-
leged to have originated in our country;^ but
scarcely an Englishman, especially if unaware of this
allegation, now scruples to make use of it. Inapt-
itude and ineptitude have been usefully despecifi-
he nor Archdeacon Todd gives even sexagenarian, which occurs, accord-
ing to Dr. "Worcester, in Bentley. Southey has centenary, for the sub-
stantive centenarian. See The Doctor (one-vol. ed.), p. 333.
1 There are those, even now, who will have diplomate ; and I have
heard Englishmen pronounce as if aristocrate, deinocrate, and fran-
chise had not been Anglicized.
2 I think I have seen it somewhere in Burke. At all events, it is
used by Charles Johnson. See Chrysal (ed. 1777), Vol. 4, p. 187.
Coleridge used it in 1799 and in 1811. See Essays on His Oton Times,
pp. 337, 827.
Comparable with executive is serial, to designate a literary produc-
tion issued in parts. Special, another adjectival substantive, once used
to denote a particular thing, is now sometimes used to denote a par-
ticular person. Analogous is vernacular^ — supplying the place of the
old vulgar, for * vulgar tongue *, used by Sir Thomas Elyot and Putten-
ham, and even by Southey,— which, having long been restricted, in
more popular usage, to qualify language', has now become also a
substantive, absorbing its ordinary adjunct. To the class of words
here adverted to belong annual, biennial, casual, cereal, cmnponent,
convalescent, expert, locomotive, open, perennial, professional, suburban,
and many other terms of prime convenience. See further, ray Recent
Exvmplificatiotis, &c., pp. 73—75; and supra, p. 169, note 2.
20
306 CHAPTER VIII.
cated ; ^ and only the latter now imports * folly '. The
former must be regarded as a domestic coinage, based
on aptitude. Insularity is a word for which, as suc-
cinctly defining their geographical peculiarity, our
transmarine kinsmen ought to feel thankful, and for
which, as pungently intimating their most conspicu-
ous ethical peculiarity, we cismarines do feel thank-
ful.^ Jangle, derived to us, through the living lan-
guages of India, from the Sanskrit, may now be
regarded as good English. The sort of wild which
it denotes is common enough in many countries, but
is not nearly so aptly designated by any other ex-
pression. Locution y though long ago first used in
English, has only of late years become at all common.
The French has, doubtless, to account for its present
existence in our language.^ Material was rarely
^ It is their despecification — not the words themselves, — that be-
longs to our period. Inept was not needed to mean the same as t/ti-
apt ; but its derivative, itieptitudej was acceptable as a sonorous syn-
onym of * folly*. Inaptitude, for *want of aptitude', is used by
Shenstone, Goldsmith, Burke, Cumberland, Godwin, "Wraxall, Southey,
Wordsworth, Shelley, Hazlitt, Mr. De Quincey, and Mr. Matthew
Arnold, among modern writers.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the original edition of his Discourses^ uses
inaptitude, for which the edition of his Literary Works, published in
1819, gives, in Vol. 2, p. 167, ineptitude, Hi»-ee4emporary, also, is
there always changed into contemporary, and, on one occasion, bis
substantive antiquarian into antiquary.
2 I have seen the word noted as the malicious device of some
American. But why malicious..^ Some things are perceived only at a
distance.
Coleridge used insularity in 1800. See Essays on His Oum Times,
p. 309.
* Lord Macaulay again and again uses phrase, for * single word ', as
well as for * combination of words'. To him, therefore, locution,
which imports either, would have been superfluous. In the compre-
hensive sense of * mode of expression ', it is daily becoming more and
:aore familiar.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 307
used till within the last hundred years. In the case
of anything made up of a single substance, to speak
of its materials was likely to mislead. It was this
consideration, assisted by the French materiel, that
gave us mdterial} Monograph ^ is one of those nu-
merous neoterisms which stand amply justified by
their superior distinctness of definition. An ad-
herent to old fashions would prefer the vague essay,
A few other revivals shall here be glanced at.
Appliancef a word which our grandfathers would have regarded as
very (quaint, certainly owes its reappearance to the increased study,
during later years, of old English literature. Few of the archaisms
which have recently been endowed with new life are more felicitous.
Belongitigs^ as an old expression now reinstated in its former rights,
is peculiar to the very latest period of our language. The more of such
vernacularisms we call up from the past, the better.
ComphXy the substantive, is now beginning, after long neglect, to
find favour again. We should search in vain for its punctual equi-
valent.
Proclivity is another good old word lately become popular. Sir
"Walter Scott uses it, to be sure, in Redgauntlet ; but its resuscitation
is due to our countrymen. Englishmen, at first, were amused at its
pedantry, and then succumbed to its utility.
Jiaidf a very old word, — and so forat/, another, — has lately been re-
vived by Scotch influence. A note appended to it by Dr. Webster's
Editors betrays entire ignorance of its extensive currency in England ;
nor is there any mention made, that it is the same as the old roady
the last syllable of inroad. For this roady see 1 Samtiel, 27, 10, Sir
Philip Sidney, Shakespeare, Bacon, Philemon Holland, &c. &c.
Who-eabouts, as a substantive, has emerged, in our century, after
long desuetude. It has been used by Southey, Wordsworth, Sir Wal-
ter Scott, Dr. Arnold, Mr. De Quincey, Mr. W. E. Gladstone, &c. &c.
To the fore is a phrase which, after having long lurked in holes and
corners, is now freely used in conversation, and, to some small extent,
in books. It occurs in the writings of Mr. De Quincey and Mr.
Thackeray. Henry Earl of Monmouth knew it more than two cent-
uries ago. See his Advertisements from Parnassus (1656), p. 416.
* It is used by Paley, Southey, Bishop Heber, Lord Macaulay, and
many others.
2 For its correct factitious original, see, as against Mr. R. G. White,
my Recent Exemplifleations, &c., p. 45.
308 CHAPTER VIII.
Objectivity, with subjectivity , causativity, plasticity^
receptivity, and several other kindred terms, have
come into vogue, during the two last generations,
through the influence of German philosophy and
aBsthetics. Pervert has been engendered by that
spirit which would mark with reprobation those
who transfer their affections from the Protestant
doxy to the Roman. And the goats, if they
come back to the old sheep-fold, to be reovilized,
are now, in pious phrase, denominated retroverts}
Verbal provision has not yet been made for further
metamorphoses. Physicist ^ is noteworthy, as a very
* Mr. "W. E. Gladstone has used reconverts. See The Foreign and
Colonial Quarterly Review, Vol. 2 (1843), p. 674.
2 Akin to physicist is prosaist; and, inasmuch as proser has no
chance of being relieyed of its dyslogistic purport, it is a word which
we shall do well to encourage. It has already been employed by many
excellent writers.
And here it is apposite to refer to specialist, a speaking example of
the tendency of modem English to verbal economy. Scores of similar
neoterisms condense, each, half a dozen words into one.
Just above, I have written dyslogistic ; and, looking to its context,
I have written frightful nonsense, provided we are to pin our faith to
the dictionaries, as regards its meaning.
In the edition of Walker's Dictionary published by Mr. B. H.
Smart in 1849, there occurs, at p. 710, among the editor's additions,
the following article.
** DisLOGisTic, a. Illogical ; undoing, by argument, what seemed to
be previously established by it. In the first sense, at least, if not in the
second, the word is ill formed."
Dr. Worcester, while omitting the sapient criticism of Mr. Smart,
takes from him, with proper acknowledgment, both the word and its
definitions ; the latter being reduced to " illogical " and " refuting, dis-
proving." Dr. Webster's Editors, who make no reference to Mr.
Smart, treat of the word, as if independently, in these terms :
" BislogistiCy a. 1. Not according to logical forms or principles ;
illogical. [Rarcl
" 2. Serving to disprove ; 'refutatory. [Rare.'] "
But, ** rare ", or not, is it quite regular and right ? We are not told ;
late and very useful neoterism ; and scienikt is, in
every way, a companion to it. In the last century,
physical meant ' medical ', as in the phraae ^'physical
phraseology ", Then, too, the sense of nnluraiist
had nothing of its present explicitness, and, moreover,
often aignilied ' anti-supernaturaliBt '. Though lay-
ing aside the old acceptation of naturalkf, we have,
however, based an adjective on it, in tiatiiralislic.
Platitude ' we have horrowed from the French, and in
this century. With Horace Walpole, it was only a
Gallicism. But it is now thoroughly Anglicized ;
and its offspring, of better or worse repute, plaiituiii-
narian, platl/udinoua, platitudiuomneso, phtitiidiiu'ze,
and pialitudinium, already show their faces in respect-
able society. A psychologist should find this group of
vocables highly instructive. To those who indulge
in what Southey calls " damnatory expletives ", it is
snd one would reaU; like to know whether anj: [ihenomeiiBl peiaoti.
M patron of diilti/iilic, and in the uiutec thus givea it, biu jet appeuied
sniodg men. Far what has logiilio to do with hgh f And, «ven if
logutie meant 'logical', what a compound we have in diilagialie !
Fnini Mr. Smart, who lion difcovorotl such words u ehefflomachti and
eurrieaiut, bis ailicle nn ■' dialagistic " is niit at all Buqicising. But
wliat are we to think oE our IciiiiigrBpherB who huvn rultowed in hii
wHke !' Ad^ respectable icbolar, even if dyihyiatie were new to him,
would lec, at u glance, that diih^iatie muil be a mistake for It, and
tbal the right word must be the rerurae of tiihgiilic. The putemity of
dytvgU'ie —on biLDtling, but now almost a eeutenariHii, — is adjadged
tu that genim of eomnan-senae, Jeremy Bentbam. See hi* Tamuui
Taih nj llu apriiigt «f Aetton.
From whit 1 have here set forth the leader will draw bis own infer-
ence u to the Kholanbip and probity wbicli preside ovt^r the oon-
crxlion nf our later English dictionuries. And what can be said nl
the pretentious and grutuitons eupersCructure which Dr. WebettT's
Editors bare erected on Mr. Smart's little basii of rubhisb ?
' Dr. Woreesler takes platitttdt directly from nkaria. This ia like
deriring blami immcdiDluly from ^Kaa^ttitia.
310 CHAPTER VIII.
such oaths as were sworn in Flanders, not your lean
piddling profanities, that afford positive relief. And
even so, to disburthen one's self of a sense of con-
tempt, a robust full-bodied detonation, like, for
instance, piatUudinous, is, unquestionably, very much
more serviceable than any evanescing squib of only
one or two syllables. Plebiscite we have lately taken,
in popular use, from the French. The word pre-
viously belonged, however, to the language of the
civil law.^ Redaction, imported from France, is a
real acquisition to our language. To work up liter-
ary matter, and give it a presentable form, is neither
compiling, nor editing, nor resetting ; and the oper-
ation performed on it is exactly expressed by redac-
tion. Solidarity, also, we have borrowed from the
French. Solidity, our old word to denote the idea
which it conveys, could never, from its ambiguity,
find general efitertainment. Solidary, 'joint and
several ', if it had got into ordinary literature, and
had been felt a desideratum, would very soon
have evolved solidarity. Solidary and solidity,^
though well-known technicalities of the civilians,
have escaped the researches of all our lexicographers.
Specie,^ irregularly as we have come by it, is now in
universal use, and would successfully resist all at-
tempts at displacement. Veto is a curious instance,
with which memento and caveat may be compared, of an
' See Bishop Hallifax, An Analysis of the Roman Civil Law (ed.
1795), p. 6.
2 See Mr. H. T. Colebrooke, Treatise on Obligations and Contracts
(1818), pp. 6, 8, 149, 161, 153, for solidary; and pp. 7, 146, 149, 162j
157, 201, for solidity,
^ Vide supra, p. 254, note 2.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 311
inflected Latin verb taken by us as a base. Zero we
were prompt to import from Continental Europe, in
the absence of any domestic equivalent of it. We
have, in it, an interesting example of a foreign and
scientific term at once naturalized by necessity, and,
to our consciousness, as little a neoterism as the old-
est word in our language. Among our myriad of
substantives like the foregoing are abolitionist, abso^
lutisty agriculturist y alarmist, architecturalist, archiv-
ist, augw^ist, aurist, balladist, ballotist, biblicist,
capitalist, ceremonialist, circumlocutionist, colloquist,
conversationist, criminalist, decimalist, diarist, eco-
nomist, elegist, epopceist, eulogist, exclusionist, ex-
cursionist, fa^simiiist, frescoist, funambulist, futur-
isf, guitarist, hygeist, indifferentist, individualist,
instrumentalist, ironist, larcenist, legendist, magazin-
ist, magnetist, mannerist, memoirist, monologist, neo-
logist, oppositionist, optimist, orientalist, paragraph-
ist, parodist, pessimist, philanthropist, plagiarist,
polemist, positivistf propagandist, protectionist,pugilist,
reactionist, requisitionist, retrogradist, revisionist,
rigorist, routinist, secularist, sentimentalist, sinecur-
, ist, socialist, somnambulist, summarist, terrorist, testi-
monialist, tourist, traditionalist, transcendent alist,
vetoist, zoologist; absenteeism, alienism, classicism,
colloquialism, favountism, individualism, manneiism,
realism, msticism, toadyism, ultraism ; abandonment,^
accompaniment, apportionment, bedizenment, besotment,
embankment, engulf ment, enlistment, entailment, mal-
treatment, jmzzlement, recruitment, revictualment ;
^ Vide tupra, foot of p. 131.
312 CHAPTER VIII.
accountability, anility , cananidty, catholicity, conduct^
ivity, constitutionality, conviviality, domesticity, event-
uality, excitability, identity, nationality, sentimental-
ity, totality; analysation, arrestation, beautification-,
civilization, identification, improvisation,^ instrmnenta-
Hon, miscalculation, orchestration, seclusion, superses-
sion, unification, vivisection, vocalization; acreage,
clientage, frontage, levera-ge, serfage, sewage, sewerage,
windage; apiarian, attitudinarian,^ equalitarian,^
lapsarian, metaphysician, rubrician, statistician, vul-
garian; constabula/ry, dyery, fernery, functionary,
grapery, greenery, heathenry,^ jewellery,^ johiery, mil-
linery,perfumeiy, pinery, rockery, signatary, symbolry,
trinketry, veterinary ; anthropology, biology, carpology,
conchology, cosmology, criminology, ethnology, gastrol-
ogy, oology, phrenology, sociology; appointee, cmisignee,
examinee, nominee, pledgee ; cellaret, cigarette^hydro-
nette, novelette, sermonette, statuette, waggonette; aspir-
ant, celebrant, emigrant,^ executant, postulant; convers-
1 Colman used this word in 1786. See Frose on Several Occasions,
&c., Vol. 3, p. 166.
2 This was used, however, by Cowper, in 1756, in The Connoisseur,
No. 138.
3 Here I should mention doctrinarian, used by Dr. Newman. See his .
Discussions and Arguments, &c., p. 19. He is to be commended for
his attempt to purge our language of the Gallic doctrinaire. "With
doctrinarian compare Southey's millionist, spoken of at the foot of p.
183, supra, * Vide supra^ foot of p. 133.
* In my Recent Exemplifications, &c., I have brought together
sundry old words terminating with the aggregative syllable -ry. I may
add the following, all taken from Udall's Apophthegmes, &c. (1542).
Bawdry, for * bawds *. Fol. 46. Viandry, for * viands *. Fol. 28, 55,
86, 185. JTafry, for * wafers '. Fol. 170. Junkery, in fol. 104, 131,
is the same as Nash's yun^M^^^^. The base of the first approaches the
YTer\Q\i jonch^e ; that of the second, the Italian giuncata.
' Paley'8 use of this word in 1785 was, I suspect, early. See his
MODERNISMS EXBKPI-IPIBD.
ttHw, iiisisk'nce, oblimscencG, rt^uvenescence, reticence,
submergence, transference; abettal, deposal, portray-
al, r&viewal ; bureaucracy, lUplomacy, itnpolieif, iner-
i-ancy ; candidature, fixture^ ilUterahire ;* heathendom,
puzzleilom, rascaldom ; arborKulture, ostreaculture,
pisciculture; paatoraie, prohtanate ; lithograph, pho-
tograpk ; acrobat, aerona%it, affluent, appreciator, aqua-
rium, alhleto, break-down, break-up, buffer, eenava/
clmb, congener, craler, doton-pour, dynamics, ernpty,
excerpt, exegete, Jiac, floe, gadabout, glacier, guillotine,*
gymnast, heavy, hymnody, iceberg, vnjluemia, htleido-
scope, la^goon, lean-to, makeshift,^ malpractice, mam-
Moral PAiltmphy (ed. 1810), Vol. 2, p. 382. Foole, in hia Dedicatinn
to TAt Minor, bo* migratil, BttbaWnlive.
' Tbia, Ihe modern corrupt substitute for ^7iir«, web BUgge9ted,iiiost
prolialil;r, bymiifwr, with which, however, it is not in analogy. Mix-
tun it not built on the EcgUib mix, but ou (ho atom of mixtum; and
there is nofixtum, Ymifiium. on the ileni of which to rear a legitimat*
anbatandyB. Also vide supra, p. 130, note 7.
" This, synonjmous with the unwieldy tmletlrrtdneai, la a word full
worth reviling. It* letj etymotogy eridencea, that it by no mesna
goes BO for aa illiteracg or illilcrataiea. It has bout used by Williun
Taylor, The Monthly Majiaine, Vol. 12 (I80I), p. 29B ; by Southey,
The Quarterly Stviuc, Vol. 47 (1832), p. 97 ; and by Dr. Maitland.
Bomewhero in The Dark Aget.
' Cente is used, by Howell, juat as we use nniuji, " And the number
of grafia nbicb sprung at one time in (ud about her walla, iu a faniouB
wnw that woa made, amounted to abate three milliuna." Oudima't
Onme (1640), p. 73.
* Thii reminds mo of a kindred word which, thoagli only of late
become naturalized, was long ngo in print.
" That doue. throwing a cord about his nockc, makiDg nae of one ol
the cornen of the chayre, he gave him the garruU [lie], wherewith he
was strangled to death.'' U»bbe, The Rogue (1623), Part 1, p. 288.
' TMs word is for from new, but, I believe, never naa aommon, in
ita preaeat leuu, till recently. Mr. Wright, in hia Dietionar]/ of
OinleU and Pratiiidal Mi/liih, qaotes, far it, H book dated in 1009.
Dr. 'Woreoster founil it in Thu L'diiiiuiyh Rivinc. It baa been used by
Jumea Mill, Charlca Lamb, iu. Sec.
314 CHAPTER VIII.
moth, mountaineering, operative,^ outcome, outing, ozone,
jparachute, peripatetic, prairie, ratal, remand, siding ,
slum, splash-hoard, stimulus, strat^igy, sub-way, swish,
telegram,^ terseness, thud, titular, turfite, unwisdom,^
whaler, wrap.
It would be easy to comment on our new adjec-
tives, also, in much greater detail than I shall here
allow myself.
Aggressive is so natural a complement of aggres-
sion and aggressor, that one would suppose it must
almost as long have been English.* Anachron-
But the older use of the word has been overpassed in our lexico-
graphy.
" At noone if it bloweih, at night if it shine,
Out trudgeth Hew Makeahift, with hook and with line."
Tusser, Five Hundreth Fointes, &c., Ch. 15.
" And not longe after, came thither a make shifte, with two men
wayghting on hym, as veiy rakehelles as him selfe, bragging that he
was a profounde phisicien." John Halle, An HistoriaU Expostula-
tion, &c. (1565), p. 19 (ed. 1844).
" Certainely, it seemeth that London is sore charged with these tnake-
shiftea ; for that almost in every streate and lane there dwelleth two
or three of these pettie brokers or cherish-theeves." George Whet-
stones, A Mirourfor Magestrates of Cyties (1584), fol. 33 v.
"Ye play the makeshiftes, nay, the murtherers." Henrie Chettle,
Kindharts Breame (1592), p. 27 (ed. 1841).
1 Used by Coleridge. See The Friend (ed. 1818), Vol. 3, p. 81.
2 For a full discussion of this word, see my Recent Exemplijications,
&c., pp. 41—47.
3 I have met this good old word scores of times, within a year or two,
in very modem books, and in newspapers.
* It is not at all certain whether the French agressif suggested
aggressive J or was suggested by it. They may have appeared independ-
ently of each other.
In agressif we have a good sample of the tricks which the French
play with proper spelling. As to the word, if they can bear it, why
should some of them And an ogre in progressif, — ^the counterpart of
progressive, which we have had hard on three centuries, if not longer ?
^* Fro^reasif et progresser sent dus & Timagination des ideologues du
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 315
ovs ^ has, of late, been ventured here and there ; and I
am greatly mistaken, if it does not answer all the
criteria of an acceptable neoterism, harmony included.
Appreciative, whatever its nationality,* established
itself, past all extruding, very soon after its intro-
duction. We have a legitimate choice, however,
between appreciative and appreciatory? Deferential,
like most of our modem words, is analogical in form-
ation, and, unlike many of them, is a really valu-
able addition to the vocabulary of bygone centuries.*
Exceptional we have wisely adopted from the French,
to signify 'implying, constituting, or relating to,
an exception or exceptions'.^ Financial has not
teraps de Franklin, de Malesherbes, et de la guerre d'Amerique
Ce mot progresaif est perfide ; il 8*en faut garder. On commence k
dire : un homme pi'ogressif. Frogressif^ applique k des personnes, ne
peut designer que d'excellents marcheurs." M. Wey, JRemarques, &c.,
Vol. 1, pp. 447, 448.
At p. 186 of the same volume, there is a separate article on pro-
greaser^ there called "un barbarisme", "un m6chant mot'*, &c. &c.
' We have synchronism and synchronotts ; and what scholar has not
desiderated a manageable adjective to match anachronism ? Anachron-
istic^ ol)viously, will hardly do, except for holiday wear ; and the chances
of auarhroniCf which was patronized by William Taylor and Coleridge,
are frustrated b^ chronic and its inevitable associations.
With anachronous I may name vicissitoua. But this, as demanding
a recondite and tedious argument for its justification, may, like the
long-tailed vicissitudinary and viciaaitudinouay be doomed to knock at
the public door in vain. Favour is denied it for the very reason which
is withdrawing favour from lenity, in favour of lenience.
*-* In 1856, this word was exhibited, in Notea and Queries, as a brand-
new Americanism.
3 Southey has used appredant. Colloquies, &c., Vol. 1, p. iv.
* See my decent Exemplijicatinna, &c., pp. 63 — 65.
* Exceptive could never become popular in this sense, by reason of
its seeming, more naturally, to mean * excepting ' ; just as connective,
deceptive^ and reflective, for instance, are equivalent to the aoristic par-
ticiples connecting, &c.
I have adverted to Mr. Buskin and Dr. Johnson^ q& ^vtx^xii^^ ^-
316
CHAPTER VIII.
yet been in current use for a hundred years; and
rather singularly ; inasmuch as finance and financier
have been in the language more than double that
period. Humanitarian^ wider of scope than philan-
thropic, is a word pregnant with significance. Huma-
nity, quite as much as prudence and reverence, stood
in need of a secondary adjective.^ Industrial, as a
forensic technicality,^ existed long before the word
came into use in its present acceptation. Industrious
would ill serve the purposes for which we find indus-
trial so advantageous. International was coined by
plying, respectively, unexceptionable and tmexceptionahlyy at the foot
of p. 201, supra.
^ " humanitarian is very strangely perverted by a certain class of
speakers and writers. It is a theological word But it is used
by the people in question, whose example has infected others, as if it
meant < humane', and something more. Now, as the meaning of
humane is * recognizing, in a common humanity, a bond of kindness,
good will, and good offices', it is difficult to discover what more
humanitarian^ if admitted in this sense, could mean. In brief, humane
covers the whole ground ; and humanitariany used in the sense of
* widely-benevolent and philanthropic', is mere cant, the result of an
effort, by certain people, to elevate and to appropriate to themselves
a common feeling, by giving it a grand and peculiar name." Mr. B.
G. White, Worde and Their Uses, p. 127.
With the animus of this compare that of M. W§y*8 remarks on
paup^rtsme, quoted in my Recent Hxemplijications, &c., p. 41, foot-
note 1. M. Wey, of course, discharges his little pop-gun at humani-
taire.
Mr. White's argument is, that, since humane signifies *a b c',
humanitariany if used as its synonym, signifies nothing more. This is
not entirely convincing. Humanitarian is no more humane, than
humane is human. Is utilitarian only utilis ? And does Arch-
deacon Hare, by "an expediential policy", intend *an expedient
policy' ? Humane and humanitarian differ as much as practice and
theory. A humane action, if the result of principle, is the result of
humanitarian principle. Conversely, this principle, if not barren,
produces fruit in humane action. It is the source and power to which
such action, when springing from a right motive, is to be referred.
' See Bishop HaUifax, An Analysis, &c., p. 24.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 317
Beiitham, who^ modestly speaks of the word as
"new, though not inexpressive."* Nobiliary, in
such a phrase as * nobiliary roll/ or ' nobiliary element
of Parliament/ is a term of patent utility, and one
to which we should try to habituate ourselves. Note-
worthy, for a long time abeyant, is now again in
common use. PatrioUc, strange to say, has not
yet been current English for three generations.^
* In his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation,
published in 1789.
William Taylor took up the word early in our century. See The
Annual Review, Vol. 1 (1803), p. 274; Vol. 5 (1807), p. 169.
Codify, maximize, and minimize may be specially mentioned from
among the numerous useful expressions with which Bentham has en-
riched our language. For their sake, his verbal monstrosities, long
ago dead and buried, may be freely pardoned.
2 Mr. De Quincey, in 1844, on occasion of using the term inter'repeU
leut, adds: " The late Mr. Coleridge suggested, and, by his own example,
sanctioned, the use of the preposition inter, for expressing cases of
reciprocal action, or, in his language, of inter-action" The Logic of
Political Economy, p. 18, foot-note.
Surely, we had, international apart, interchange, internecine, &c.,
long before we had Coleridge. Of late, we hare coined largely words
like intercolonial.
* For its presentation as early as 1653, vide supra, p. 117, note 5,
ad fin.
Dr. Johnson did not admit patriotic into his Dictionary. As his
editor, Archdeacon Todd, observes, however, he " has repeatedly used
this word," but " in an ironical way." He uses it, but always sneer-
ingly, to qualify "pleasure**, "rage", "tribes", and "vanity".
Yet, in his Taxation no Tyranny ^ he means, by " antipatriotic pre-
judices ", just what we should mean.
Lord Macaulay, in his most unfair Essay on Horace Walpole, gives,
as a palmary sample of his Gallicisms : " It will now be seen whether
'10 or they are mosi patriot.** But * most patriotic ' would have seemed
ilmost as odd to Walpolc's contemporaries as " most patriot " seems to
us. To Burke, Gibbon, and Mathias, with many other writers of
tlicir a^e, patriot was both a substantive and an adjective, as, in the
liinjruage of poetry, it is still. Foote, in The Minor (1760), makes
Snift speak of " a patriot gingerbread-baker." " Apatriot minister ".
The Monitor (1762), No. 357. John Wilkes prefixes patriot^va. \X^'L
318 CHAPTER VIII.
PretentiouSy a very useful word, and in analogy
with conscientious y licentious, and sententious,^ we
have imitated from the French pretentieux. Sub-
stantival and its congeners ^ are secondary adjectives
which we owe to the superioc exactness of modern
grammatical terminology. Further samples of our
and 1763, to "toasts", "labours", ** spirit", "minister", "club",
"stem*', "king'*, "heroes". The North Briton, ^os. 15, 18,^2,
36,39,41. But "jpa^no^rc zeal'*. /*trf.. No. 39. In Wilkes's Dedi-
cation to Lord Rokeb/s The Fall of Mortimer^ patriot qualifies " king **,
" minister ", and " moments *'. Other references are these. Cole, The
TForldy No. 86. Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality (ed. 1792), Vol.
1, p. 250; Vol. 3, pp. 256, 261. Colman, Prose on Several Occasions,
Vol 2, p. 31 ; Vol. 3, pp. 257, 266, 280. George Watson, England
Preserved, Act 1. Bolingbroke's phrase *^ patriot king " long held its
ground.
In the slavish times of George III., patriots and patriotism were
often talked of in a way which would now provoke a stare.
" Political truth is equally in danger from the praises of. courtiers
and the exclamations of patriots." Dr. Johnson, Life of Waller.
" Patriotism and tyranny look opposite ways ; and there may be such
a thing as a true patriot ; but, for the most part, these two are like
Samson's foxes, connected by a firebrand, to inflame human affairs, and
convert public calamity into private advantage." Rev. William Jones,
of Nayland, Theological and Miscellaneous Works, Vol. 2, p. 139.
And there is Dr. Johnson's conversational definition oi patriotism, —
" the last refuge of a scoundrel."
1 According to the newspapers, Mr. Beresford Hope, not long ago,
ventured, in the House of Commons, the word asswnptiotisness.
Neither does bumptiousness Hot presumptuousness, terms which define
two of the honourable gentleman's most salient characteristics, afford
him a precedent for his invention.
2 Among them are adjectival, affixal, diminutival, imperatival, nom-
inatival, &c. &c. Compare festival, — with reference to festive, — but
merely as to form. The verb be is called substantive, to denote that
it signifies something like * existence ' ; a noun is called adjective, to
mark its species. Average, in * average rate *, grew out of averagium,
and, therefore, is a substantival adjective ; eatables originated from an
adjective, and, hence, is an adjectival substantive. These exemplifica-
tions are, alone, sufficient to show the utility of the class of words here
referred to.
MODERNISMS EXEMPLIFIED. 319
new adjectives are seen in abnormal, abysmal, accent-
ual, alluvial,^ architectural, biographical, censorial, con-
versational, denominational, departmental, directorial,
discretional, distributional, divisional, emotional, extra-
mural, fictional, fratricidal, functional, governmental,
inaugural, inquisitorial, intramwral, intuitional, legis-
latorial, medieval, normal, prelatial, regicidal, sculp-
tiiral, secretarial,^ sectional, sensational, sentimental,
sessional, territorial, transitional, tuitional, typal,
zenithal ; abeyant, adolescent, afferent, assentient, cul-
minant, dominant,^ flam boy ant, grandiloquent,'^ hesitant,
larmoyant, nascent, originant, persistent, preponderant,
presentient, recalcitrant, riant, senescent; aid ei manic,
archaic, artistic, ceramic, climatic, dynastic, dyspeptic,
fistic, operatic, strategic, transatlantic, voUani^c ;^
barbaresque, gentesque, gigantesque, picturesque,
sculpturesque, sermonesque, soldatesque, statuesque;
documentary, domiciliary, expeditionary, insurrection-
ary, reactionary, vestiary ; amorphous, cantankerous,
eponymous, euphonious, gaseous, monotonous, oragious,
uproarious; crotchety, fussy, jerky, markworthy, pudgy,
shaky, sketchy,^ skimpy ; cleverish, dearish, priggish,
raffish, sharpish, wideish ; co usinly, fortnightly,'^ grand -
; ^
^ The old word, according to Dr. Johnson, was alluvions.
2 Southey, in 1801, used seeretarian.
3 This is a resuscitation ; and of the same character arc efete and
inadmissible,
* Neither Dr. Richardson nor Dr. Latham has this now common
word.
^ The pronunciation of volcano with the Italian a is a sort of shib-
boleth of the English nobility. It is amusing, that such die-away
people should be distinguishable by their peculiar dealings with a word
so suggestive of explosiveness.
• Thb is one of the few neoterisros used by Lord Macaulay.
^ Dr. Webster's Editors are unacquainted with this adjective. I can.
320 CHAPTER VIII.
fatherly, waiterly ; antipodean, lunarian, reptilian,
Trojctarian^ utilitarian ; ^ evasible, regrettable, reliable;
exhaustive, precursive, promotive ; demented, extortion-
ate , flavour some, limp,^ nondescript, peninsular, repara^
tory, sparse, taciturn, truthful, unwifelike^
Such are some of the words by which living
English differs from the English which prevailed in
the time of George the Second. It is curious to
speculate what will be the contents of a correspond-
ing list, in which the neoterisms of the century-
then just elapsed shall be exemplified in 1973.
testify to its having been in common use, among Englishmen, for a
least Ave and twenty years. Dr. Worcester records it.
^ Instead of this ill-formed word, I have met with Tractite and
Tractator.
2 This word — see Mr. J. S. Mill's Utilitarianism, — was first used, it
is said, by Mr. Gait, in his Annals of the Parish.
Like utilitarian, many words are no sooner created, as adjectives,
than they become substantives, also.
* Dr. Worcester calls limp, for * flaccid*, 'lithe*, "local". It is
not so in England.
* New adjectives in -ish, -ly, -like^ and -y are improvised, in conver-
sation, as wanted ; and some authors write them as freely as they
speak them. By way of curiosity, I give a few in -y, — all of them
taken from books, — additional to those in the text. It is not likely
that, without exception, they are modern. Old-fashioned lexico-
graphers considered such light expressions as unworthy of their
notice*
S^ffff!/i ^^fyf beery, crackly, dashy, fizzy, flary, flossy, fluffy, gossipy ^
P'<^99yi headachy, hiecupy, jewelly, mouthy, muzzy, nutty ^ patehy^
peaty, per fumy, pimply, poky, raffy, raggy, rumply, rutty, scrappy,
scratchy, shifty, shingly, shrieky, sludgy, spiffy, stagy, thundery, thymy,
tricky, viewy, whimmy.
In our days, as compared with former times, colloquialisms get into
black and white very largely ; but there is no reason to suppose that as
many as we now use were not used in past centuries. Richardson's
novels deserve special mention, as being a rich storehouse of the
conversational dialect of their author's age.
APPENDIX.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE.
Who is so bold as blind Bayard ? — Old Froverb.
'^ All really well educated in the English tongue
lament the many innovations introduced into our
language from America ; and I doubt if more than
one of these novelties deserve acceptation. That
one is, substituting a compound participle for an
active verb used in a neuter signification; for in-
stance, *The house is being huilt^ instead of *The
house is building.' " Such is the assertion, and such
the opinion, of some anonymous luminary,^ who, for
his liberality in welcoming a supposed Americanism,
is somewhat in advance of the herd of his country-
men. Almost any popular expression which is con-
sidered as a novelty, a Briton is pretty certain to
assume, off-hand, to have originated on our side of
the Atlantic. Of the assertion I have quoted, no
proof is offered ; and there is little probability that
its author had any to offer. Are being, in the phrase
«
1 L. W. K., CLK., LL.D., EX-SCH. T.C.D. Of this reverend
gentleman's personality I know nothing. He does not write the most
exemplary English, and he does not say exactly what he means ; but
what he means is, yet, unmistakable. The extract given above is from
a letter in Public Opinion, Jan. 20, 1866.
21
322 APPENDIX.
" are being thrown up/' ^ is spoken of, in The North
American Seview,^ as "an outrage upon English
idiom, * to be detested, abhorred, execrated, and given
over to six thousand^ penny -paper editors;" and the
fact is, that phrases of the form here pointed at have
hitherto enjoyed very much less favour with us than
with the English.^
As lately as 1860, Dr. Worcester,* referring to is
being built, &c., while acknowledging, that " this new
form has been used by some respectable writers,'*
speaks of it as having " been introduced " " within a
few years." Mr. Richard Grant White,^ by a most
peculiar process of ratiocination, endeavoTirs to prove,
that what Dr. Worcester calls "this new form",
came into existence just fifty-six® years ago. He
^ The analysis, taken for granted in this quotation, of ** are being
thrown up " into "are being" and "thrown up," will be dealt with
in the sequel, and shown to be untenable.
2 Vol. 46 (1837), p. 604.
' The Rey. John Earle, after quoting, from the oflfertory-mbric,
" while these sentences are in reading ", adds : " In modem English,
we should make it passiye, and say ' While these sentences are being
read':' The Philology of the English Tongue (1871), p. 486.
And this is all that the author of the very disappointing work, just
quoted, has to say on the interesting point which forms the subject of
the present monograph.
In A School Manual of English Grammar (1873), Messrs. "W.
Smith and T. D. Hall insert, as the " Present Tense Incomplete " and
the " Past Tense Incomplete ", " I am being beaten " and " I was being
beaten ", in their Paradigm of the Passive Voice, and simply remark,
at p. 49 : " This usage is of late introduction into our language.'*
Dr. R. Morris, in his Historical Outlines of English Accidence (ed.
1873), ignores, I believe, these neoteric forms altogether!
* In his Dictionary (ed. 1860), Preface, p. xxxix.
» See liis Words and Their Uses (1871), Ch. 11, entided *Is Being
Done\ extending from p. 334 to p. 364.
' TbiB was written in 1871.
I
ENGLISH IMPEHPEOra PASSIVE. 323
premises/ that, in Jarvis's translation of Don Qiiuoi.e,
published in 1742, there occurs "were carrying,"
and that this, in the edition of 1818, is sophisticated
into "were being carried." "This change," con-
tinues our logician, "and the appearance of t'a being
with a perfect participle, in a very few books pub-
lished between a.d. 1815 and 1820, indicate the for-
mer period as that of the origin of this phraseology,
which, although more than half a century old, is still
pronounced a novelty as well aa a nuisance." ^
' He begins with sajiiag; : " The latter coune of thia idiom of r'H, on,
or B vilh the vecbal noun may be traoed, and the period of the cen-
oeetion of is hting may bo determined, by a eompariBon of the heading
of chapter xxiL of Dan Qutxiite, aa it appears in the priacipal English
" Detetmined" hai iiuee haou altered to " approiimat^l ", for
reasons shown in the next note. Hut alteration is itill needed. It
does niit follow, becaosa k, in 1742, wrote wert carrying, Hnd B, in
1818, wrote aere btiitg cam'ad, that B'l exprossion was urikuo*n to A.
' In the new edition of JFonit and Their Uuii, published towarda
the end at last jetir, we Uml, at p. 348, instead of the BoatAace quoted
"This change indieates the latter part of the leientaenl.h [rind
eighteenth] ceotmy, as tbe birth-time of it being. And, in fact, the
earliest known initaniw of its uss occurs in a letter by Southey, dated
179S. Coleiidge nsed it, and Lamb, and Landor; yet, after thre«
quniters of a century, it is pronounced a noielty and a nuisance."
The factB about Sonthey, Coleridge, Lamb, and Landor. the reader
will find at pp. 326, 327, infra ; but Mr. White, while pillaging from
me, nowhere eren names or alludes to ne.
A rcricwor in The Nalioti, May 15, 1873, wrilos thus :
" Mr. White, howerer. is not absolutely inaccessible to instraction
from his critivs. Dr. Hall's elaborate reCiitation of his argument
against ■> being, publinhed in Scriimr'i Monlkly, a year ago, — the
subject is, therefore, only alluded lo, not reargued, in the present
hroch lira,— has been so fir taken to heart, by him, that he now (p.
337] declare* the phrase to haie begun 'about eerenCy or eighty years
ago ', instead of, as in the flrit editiut), ' aboat fifty years ago, as I
infer," to distress and torture e»ery tasteW wid reasonable frioitd of
correct English. He mtshl ftU, Ra tbiiilE, hnie ffxea On. Q>!^ «»!;:£.
324 APPENDIX.
Who, in the next place, devised our modem im-
perfects passive ? The question is not, originally, of
my asking ; but, as the learned are at open feud on
•the subject, it should not be passed by in silence.
Its deviser is, more than likely, as undiscoverable as
the name of the valiant antediluvian who first tasted
an oyster. But the deducible character of the mis-
creant is another thing ; and hereon there is war be-
tween the philosophers. Mr. G. P. Marsh,^ as if he
had actually spotted the wretched creature, passion-
ately and categorically denounces him as "some
grammatical pretender.'' "But," replies Mr. White,
" that it is the work of any grammarian is more than
doubtful. Grammarians, with all their faults, do not
deform language with fantastic solecisms, or even
seek to enrich it with new and startling verbal com-
binations. They rather resist novelty, and devote
themselves to formulating that which use has already
established. It can hardly be, that such an incon-
gruous and ridiculous form of speech as is being done
was contrived by a man who, by any stretching of
the name, should be included among grammarians.''
In the same page with this, Mr. White vituperates
the great unknown as "some precise and feeble-
for suggesting this alteration of date, particularly as he does not draw
an additional particle of profit from the counter-argument. This whole
matter is thoroughly characteristic of Mr. White."
But Mr. White, even when he pilfers, makes an ill use of his booty.
For how does the change, in the edition of Jarvis's Bon Quixote pub-
lished in 1818, into were being carriedf from the were carrying of the
edition of 1742, '* indicate the latter part of the eighteenth century,
as the birth-time of is being''} Mr. White's later logic is no im-
provement on his early.
^ Lectures on the English Language, p. 649.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 325
minded soul/' and elsewhere calls him " some pedan-
tic writer of the last generation." To add even one
word towards a solution of the knotty point here in-
dicated transcends, I confess, my utmost competence ;
and all the world, quite possibly, must be content
to share my helplessness. Nero, Heliogabalus,
Changhez Khan, and, Alva are properties of his-
tory ; but, in all likelihood, we shall labour in vain
to discover the Attila of speech who, by his is being
builfy or is being done, first offered violence to the
whole circle of the proprieties.
Dr. Priestley, in the last edition of his Rudiments
of English Grammar, which came out in 1772, takes
no notice of locutions like those in question; and
none is taken by the Rev. John Bretland, in his en-
larged edition of the aforesaid work, published in
1785. If Priestley had ever heard such locu-
tions, he would, doubtless, have remarked on them.
Whether they had arisen, or not, in 1785, I am
unprepared to say ; but, as I shall show, they were
beginning to have vogue only ten years later.^
1 In a portion of Jeremy Bentham's Chureh-of-Englandism and
its Catechism Examined^ &c., republished in 1868, we read, at p. 69 :
** are every day being consumed'*. The original work first appeared
about 1788 ; and even the editions of 1818 and 1824 have ''^are every
day consuming** .
In Matthew G. Lewis's Journal of a West India Proprietor (ed.
1834), p. 129, in a letter bearing the date of 1816, is the expression
*' while breakfast was getting ready". A later edition changes this
into ** while breakfast was being got ready.'*
An elegant London edition of The Vicar of Wakefield^ printed in
1855, gives, in Ch. 25 : *'The little money I had was very nearly
being all exhausted.** Goldsmith, I find, wrote "near"; and, by the /
substitution of " nearly ", the expression " was being exhausted " is
foisted upon him, and to the utter perversion of his meaning.
326 APPENDIX.
How soon they were recognized by grammarians
ought to be ascertainable at the expense of a few hours*
questing in such a library as that of the British
Museum. So far as I have observed, the earliest
Grammar which exhibits them is that of Mr. R. S.
Skillem, M.A., the first edition of which was pub-
lished at Gloucester, in 1802. We there find, in the
paradigm of the passive voice, "to be being con-
quered,'' " I am being conquered,'* " I was being
conquered," " I shall or will be being conquered,"
"I can, may, or must be being conquered," &c.,
&c. Most of these forms must come among those
which the author admits that he inserted for the sake
of theoretical completeness. He nowhere invites
special attention to any of them.
Robert Southey had not, on the ninth of October,
1795, been out of his minority quite two months,
when, evidently delivering himself in a way which
had already become familiar enough, he wrote of " a
fellow whose uttermost upper grinder is being torn
out by the roots by a mutton-fisted barber." ^ This
is from a private letter. In a work which Southey
published two years later, we read : " He is now being
educated for a Catholic priest," ^
^ * — — ■ -- ■
Editors of modern literature, until very recently, have rarely been
noted for scrupulous fidelity. Hundreds of authors, no question, have
been tampered with like Clarendon, Madame de Sevigne, Gray, and
"Washington.
1 The Life and Correspondence of the late Robert Southey, Vol. 1, p.
249.
2 Letters, &c. (1797), p. 372. I might appeal largely to Southey's
private letters ; but, for further testimonies, I confine myself to his
compositions of a more formal cast.
^* Plans and elevations of their palace, and of the new temple, have
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 327
" While my hand was being drest by Mr. Young, I
spoke for the first time," wrote Coleridge,^ in March,
1797.
Charles Lamb speaks of realities which " are being
acted before us," ^ and of " a man who is being
strangled." *
Walter Savage Landor, in an imaginary convers-
ation, represents Pitt as saying : " The man who
possesses them may read Swedenborg and Kant,
while he is being tossed in a blanket." * Again : " I
have seen nobles, men and women, kneeling in the
street, before these bishops, when no ceremony of the
Catholic Church was being performed." * Also, in a
translation from Catullus :
" Some criminal is being tried
For murder." *
" We were allowed two hours for dinner ; and
two more were wasted in the evening, while the
been made for them, and are now bein^ engraved for the public."
Hspriella's Letters, &c. (1807), VoL 3, p. 266.
** Volumeg have been filled, and are perpetually being filled^** &c.
Life of Wesley (ed, 1864), Vol. 2, p. 281.
*^ Such . . at this time are being* reestablished.** Colloquies, &c.,
Vol. 1, p. 338.
"It is needed alike for those who are being trained in our seminaries,"
&c. Covcpar's Works, Vol. 1, p. 8.
** She has been carried from lecture to lecture, like a student who is
being erammed at a Scotch UniTcrsity." The Doctor (ed. 1849), pi
3&
** That verb is eternally being declined.** Ibid., p. 40.
> Biographia Literaria (ed. 1847), Vol. 2, p. 317.
' Elia*8 EHsaya, Stage Illusions.
* Ibid., On the Inconveniences Resulting from Being Hanged.
* Works, Vol. 1, p. 376.
• The Letters of a Conservative^ p. 88.
• The Last Fruit off an Old Tree, p. 262.
328 . APPENDIX.
coach was being changed,*^ So writes Mrs. Shelley.*
And Shelley, in 1819 : " My Prometheus, which
has been long finished, is now being transcribed, and
will soon be forwarded to you for publication."^
The critical Dr. Arnold has : *^ For instance, what
lies at the bottom of that question which is now
being discussed everywhere, — the question of the corn-
laws, — but the geological fact, that England is more
richly supplied with coal-mines than any other
country in the world ? ** ^
Nor does Mr. De Quincey scruple at such English
as " made and being made^^ * and " the bride that was
being married to him."^ On one occasion, he writes
" not done, not even (according to modern purism)
being done ; "® as if purism meant * exactness,' rather
than * the finical avoidance of neoterism.'
I need, surely, name no more, among the dead,
who found is being built, or the like, acceptable.
** Simple-minded common people and those of culture
were alike protected against it by their attachment to
1 History of a Six Weeks* Tour, &c. (1817), p. 72.
2 Shelley Memorials f p. 118.
3 IntrodtMtory Lectures on Modern History (ed. 1846), pp. 126, 127.
Also see Miscellaneous Works, p. 121.
Shelley, Mrs. Shelley, and Dr. Arnold are not named by Mr. "White,
— vide supra, p. 323, note 2, — in his list of early users, among good
writers, of is being, &c. The passages which I now take from them
were not given in my first edition of the present paper. My extracts
from Mr. De Quincey Mr. White shuts his eyes to. It would not have
done for him to let it be known that a writer so highly esteemed in
America differed from himself.
♦ Works,No\.1,^. 111.
' Ibid., Vol. 18, p. 232, second foot-note. Somewhere else, Mr. De
Quincey writes : ** The shafts of Heaven were even now being forged.**
My reference to the passage I have mislaid.
« Wwhs, Vol. 4, p. 7.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 329
the idiom of their mother-tongue, with which they
felt it to be directly at variance." ^ So Mr. White
informs us. But the writers whom I have quoted
are formidable exceptions. Even Mr. White will
scarcely deny to them the title of "people of
culture."
So much for offenders past repentance ; and we
all know, that the sort of phraseology under con-
sideration is daily becoming more and more common.
The best-written of the English reviews, magazines,
and journals are perpetually marked by it ; and some
of the choicest of living English writers employ it
freely.
Preeminent among these stands Dr. Newman, who
wrote, as far back as 1846 : " At this very moment,
souls are being led into the Catholic Church, on the
most various and independent impulses, and from the
most opposite directions." ^
Bishop Wilberforce shall be summoned next.
'^ How plainly, in this case, is the work of evil being
accomplished in our soul, and all hope of the continu-
^ Aod this language Mr. White repeats in 1872, when in possession of
the facts as to Southey, Coleridge, Lamb, and Landor, which he plagia-
rizes from me.
In his new edition, Mr. White boldly insinuates that expressions like
is being built are, even at this day, somewhat peculiar to very low
persons :
**This * continuing passive present' seems to be fastened upon us;
those who inaugurate * sample-rooms *, or who report the proceedings
on those occasions, being instant in its use, and seizing every opportu-
nity of airing their precision." P. 413, foot-note.
By sample-rooms are meant, in New York slang,' * grog-shops '. In
Mr. White's opinion, either the keepers of such places, or else their
newspaper-puffers, must be influential indeed, if they can really
'^ fasten" any mode of speech on the people at large.
2 Essays Critical and Historiealf Vol. 2, p. 448.
330 APPENDIX.
ance of a faitWul and prosperous ministry being de-
stroyedy ^ " The true evil is being wroughV^ * " It
is acting the evil which is being accomplished within
him/^ 8 a Perhaps this last issue w being now decided
for us, as a nation." *
From Mr. Euskin I take one instance of similar
phraseology, and refer to fifteen more. " Now, dur-
ing the whole period in which the ground w being
recovered,** &c.^
" Italy is being annexed to Sardinia by its own free
will," says the Rev. Dr. E. A. Freeman .•
"The king of Dahomey sips sugar and water,
whilst a hundred human beings are being massacred
before his eyes, and their blood is being puddled with
the blood of tigers." So the Rev. S. Baring-Goidd.'
Mr. Matthew Arnold writes : *' Any one, for in-
stance, who will go to the Potteries, and will look at
the tawdry, glaring, ill-proportioned ware which is
being made there," &c.®
" The corpuscles enter into the eggs, while they
are being formed^^ is the language of Professor
Huxley, in his account of the panhistophyton.*
1 Addresses, &c. (ed. 1860), p. 225.
3 Sertnons, &c., Second Series (1863), p. 48.
3 Ibid., ^.60. * J*»V?., p. 74.
' The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849), p. 142. Also see Zee-
tures on Architecture and Fainting (1854), p. 70 : The Two Path*
(1859), pp. 14, 68, 155, 228: Ethics of the Bust (1866), pp. 22, 102,
108, 190, 198, 203: Sesame and Lilies (ed. 1871), pp. 21, 97:
The Eagle's Nest (1872), p. 67 : Fors Clavigera, Letter 29, p. 2.
• Eistorical Essays, Vol. 1, p. 167. Also see pp. 122, 237. The
three passages referred to were written in 1860, 1869, and 1871.
' The Origin and Development of Religious Belief (ed. 1871),
p. 77, 8 Literature and Dogma, p. 66,
» Critiques and Addresses (1873), p. 247.
Ijord Macaulay, Mr. IKckens, The Aflantic Moiiihly,
and The Brookli/n Eagle are alleged by Mr. White,
afterhaving given extracts from Bistop Jewell down-
wards, in proof tliat people still use such phrases aa
" Chelsea Hoqiital wa» buihimg," and " the train
was preparing," "Hence we see," he adds, "that
the form is being done, is being made, is being built,
lacka the support of authoritative usage from the
period of the earliest classical English to the present
day." I fully concur with Mr. WMte, in regarding
" neither T/ie Brooklyn Eagle nor Mr. Dickens as a
Tery high authority in the use of language ; " yet,
when he has renounced the aid of these contemned
straws, what, by his argument, has he to rest his in-
ference on, as to our own day, but the practice of
Loi-d Macaulay and The Allantic Monthly? Those
I ■who think tit will bow to the dictatorship hero pre-
scribed to them ; but there may be those with whom
the classic sanction of Southey, Landor, Dr. Newman,
and Mr. Matthew Arnold will not be wholly void of
weight. Fox, when he resolved to put on paper
no word wliich had not the warrant of Dryden,
I decided for himsdf alone. Mr. Wliif e out- Foxes Fox.
All scholars are aware, that, to convey the sense of
the imperfects passive, our ancestors, centuries ago,
prefixed, with is, &c., in, afterwards corrupted into
See, farther, the RBT.ChnrleiKingaley, ThiBirmiti,-^^. 18,31; Mr.
Hanrj Crablie Boliiimm, iJinrj/. ic„ Vol.1, p. 602; Vol, 2, p. 367.
Atid I might rarer to Ceckford, Sir John Davu, Mr. OJckeoi, Mr.
Thaokeray, Mr. Cnrljlc, &o, la. &o. There are twelTO instancBs in
Sir. Cbarlea Renile'« Hard Caih, and athem in Tli« Cowm of Trta
Lore, &x.. The Eighth CammaHduitut, i'uC Youraelfia Rii I'lUff, Griffilh
I Qauni, &c.
332 APPENDIX.
a, to a verbal substantive. * The house is in building '
could be taken to mean nothing but cedes cedifican^
tur ; and, when the in gave place to a,^ it was still
manifest enough, from the context, that building was
governed by a preposition. The second stage of
change, however, namely, when the a was omitted,
entailed, in many cases, great danger of confusion.^
In the early part of the last century, when English
was undergoing what was then thought to be purifi-
cation, the polite world substantially resigned is a-
building, especially in its passive sense, to the vulgar.^
1 Thomas Fuller writes : "At his arrivall, the last stake of the
Christians was on losing.'* The HistoHe of the Soly Warre (ed.
1647), p. 218.
' In the Geneva New Testament, 1 St. Peter, 3, 20, is the expression
** while the arcke wa4 preparing** And so the passage is reproduced
in Bagster's Sexapla, where, Mr. Marsh supposes, *^ preparing ....
is, probably, a misprint for a-preparing ; as no other example of that
form is known to occur until long after the date of that version.**
Lectures, &c., p. 651, foot-note.
There is no misprint, I tind, on reference to the original edition of
1557 ; and Mr. Marsh is mistaken in thinking that such a form as
preparing for a-preparing, was not in use till long after that date.
" Or els, whyles a commodye of Plautus is playinge, and the vyle
bondemen skoffynge and trylFelinge amonge them selfes," &c. Raphe
Robynson, Translation of Sir Thomas More's Utopia (1551), p. 64
(ed. 1869).
*' There was talking of a monasterie that was erecting in the honour
of hym." Pasquine in a Traunce (ed. 1566), fol. 17.
" And yet was there one [pageant] much fayrer, that was preparing
for Peter Lewes," &c. Ibid., fol. 101.
" He was worthily received by Pontus, duke and gouvemour of the
same ile, with whom he lodged while his shippes were newe repairyng.**
Barnabe Riche, Farewell to Militarie Frofession (1581), p. 69 (ed.
1846).
" In the meane space, while these things were providing, he trimmed
the maine mast of the Jesus, which, in the storme aforesaid, was
sprong.*' Sir John Hawkins, in Hakluyt, Vol. 1 (1589), p. 524.
» ** Noble is thy bringing uppe as is thy raising to high fortunes.*'
Dekker, The Bead Tearme (1608), sig. C 4 v.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 333
Towards the close of the same century, when, under
the influence of free thought, it began to be felt that
even ideas had a right to faithful and unequivocal
representation, a just resentment of ambiguity was
evidenced in the creation of is being built. The
lament is too late, that the instinct of reformation did
not restore the old form. It is gone for ever ; and we
are now to make the best of its successors. . ^* * The
brass is forging y* '^ in the opinion of Dr. Johnson, is
" a vicious expression, probably corrupted from a
phrase more pure, but now somewhat obsolete, . . .
* the brass is a-forging,^ " Yet, with a true Tory's
timidity, and aversion to change, it is not surprising
that he went on preferring what he found estabUshed,
vicious as it confessedly was, to the end. But was
the expression " vicious," solely because it was a
corruption ? In 1787, William Beckford wrote as
follows, of the fortune-tellers of Lisbon : " I saw ane
dragging into light, as I passed by the ruins of a
palace thrown down by the earthquake. Whether a
familiar of the Inquisition was griping her in his
clutches, or whether she teas taking to account by some
disappointed votary, I will not pretend to answer." ^
Are the expressions here italicized either perspicuous
or graceful? Whatever we are to have in their
place, we should be thankful to get quit of them.
Inasmuch as, concurrently with building for the
active participle, and being built for the correspond-
We still use the fonner, but no longer the latter, of the expressions
italicized. For raising we could here substitute neither * rising * nor
* being raised *. We should put * elevation', meaning * elevatedness*.
> Italyy &c., Vol. 2, p. 89.
ing passive participle, ive possessed the fonner, with
is prefixed, as the active present imperfect, it ib in
rigid accordance with the symmetry of our verb,
that, to 'conBtmct the passive present imperfect, we
prefix is to the latter, producing the form is being
built. Such, in its greatest simplicity, is the proce-
dure which, as will be seen, has provoked a very
levanter of ire and vilification. But anything that
is new will be excepted to by minds of a certain
order. Their tremulous and impatient dread of
removing ancient landmarks disqualifies them even
for thoroughly investigating its character and pre-
tensions. It is not impossible to imagine, that the
primeval practitioners of articulate speech themselveB
were frowned on, with severe displeasure, by sturdy
conservatives who had determined to be content with
the language of pantomime. And theoretical ad-
mirers of the prelingual period are, possibly, scattered
here and there, to this day. " Unless a man," writes
Mr. White, " is a monster of pedantry and priggish-
neas, — and, indeed, not then, — the words and the
forms of speech he uses are not made, or even chosen,
by himself."^ But, as "words" and "forms of speech,"
that is to say, language, are made, and are, most as-
suredly, not the work of pedants and prigs, their
origin must be estrahumau. As to is being built, it
is, presumably, not to the class of those expressions
which, with yvmQi. irtavTov, streamed down from
I " Any man bss the ri^ht to use n word, especiallj' a word of such
natural growtb and bo well rooWd oi JHXtapate, for tha first time ; elae
WH aliauld be poorly off for language." Ward* and Tlicir Utit, p.
259.
Haw u this to be raeoticUed with the doctrine quoted ia the tut P
I
■ ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 335
■Seaven, but to the class of tKose wluch steamed up
B&om Tartarus, that Mr. White would assign it.
I In wf building and in is being built, we have an
fc»uxi I iary followed by the active participle present and
■ by the passive participle present, just as, in will build
■and in will he built, we have an auxiliary followed by
■ the active infinitive and by the passive infinitive.
KAnd then there is has been built, paired against has
B built} To come to analysis, tritl be built and ha% been
I huilt, considered as equivalent to will be ~\- built and
B.^s been -|- built, would signify Bomething like' will
P > Tbougb, of these concretiiins, aa rnicih, the latler, hat built, it itctivB,
■ I cannot cnOBent with the gi^mmiinana in m cnlling the paiticlple,
huilt, which it embodies. The real reuBoa wbj biisU may be an ele-
ment of an nctiie cnncretioii, no Icbb than (A n paaiiive coaorelian, u.
that, taken unqDalificdbyAact or bi, it \s itatio ; as in ' abiiill hoaae',
' I fonnd thehoufla iuill ', where built, in eueuoe and function, ia indu-
tinguiabuble li-om an adjeetive.
I would here refer, tor an admirable eipoaition of the dichotomj of
the pirts of speech into st«tic and dynamic, to Dr. Shudnorlh S.
Hodgaon'i Thtoi-y of Practici, Vol. 2, Ch. 1, Fara. 93.
* I eiprsss mfbclf in this manner, bfcanse I distinguish between bt
and ixiit. As well might one denr that'thej differ, as deny a difference
between mie and ixiilere, When we assert that a thing eziilt, we
denote, respecting it. a degree of protennian in time, or of prominence
of presentation, wbich a clearly uhsent f^om the conicionsness, when
WD assert that the thing if. Moreover, txiil, refusing to derogate from
its original charaoter, and to surrender it« aabstantiro rights, will not
«ubmit to be Bltcnuated into a mere link of eonneiioii ; whereas In
diiesta itself madily of its dynamic robustness, humbles itself to he-
eomo a simple cupula, and, as such, is equally fitted to form a constitu-
ent of a Terb actite, of a *orb pasaive, and of a yerb neuter, or, IB
other words, la suhserre tbe full expression of energy, recipiency of
energy, and objectless actirity.
Home Tooke says he would " rather chuse, in the scale of beinas,
taixitt B mastiff or H ranic, than a monkey or a lap-dog." Herenn Mr.
White comments, that "no man who bos preserved sU ble senses will
duubt, for a moment, that. ' to ui'if a mastilf or a male ' is absolutely
the same as ' (o fa a mostilTor a mule.' " I, for one, mnal, then,huve
parted with soma portion of my seusca. But I am Goaifof<jE:>i 'b,'^<;)w
336 APPENDIX.
exist built and has existed built, which, plainly, are
neuter. We are debarred, therefore, from such
resolutions ; and, by parity of reasoning, we may not
analyse is being built into is being -(- built. It must
have been an inspiration of analogy, felt or unfelt,
that suggested the form I am discussing. Is being -\-
bui/t, as it can mean, pretty nearly, only exists built,
would never have been proposed as adequate to con-
vey any but a neuter sense ; whereas it was perfectly
natural for a person aiming to express a passive sense,
to prefix is to the passive concretion being built}
conTiction, that I have a goodly fellowship of unacknowledged bed-
lamites to bear me company.
Mr. White, since reading my remarks on his extract from Home
Tooke, has altered the passage quoted above. It now runs : " can
any man who has preserved all his senses doubt, . . . ? '* This sub-
stitution of the interrogative address for the affirmative indicates a
modified view of insanity, certainly ; but, in stopping short of com-
plete excision, Mr. White has also indicated, that, whereas * is inap-
prehensive * was formerly to be predicated of him, we are now com-
pelled to predicate * exists inapprehensive *.
** The identity of thesis and antithesis is the substance of all beinff ;
their opposition, the condition of all existence^ or being manifested ;**
&c. Coleridge, The Friend (ed. 1818), Vol 1, p. 155.
1 Samuel Richardson writes : " Jenny, who attends me'here, has more
than once hinted to me, that Miss Jervois loves to sit up late, either
reading or being read to by Anne, who, tho' she reads well, is not fond
of the task." Sir Charles Grandison (ed. 1754), Vol. 3, p. 46.
Y The transition is very slight by which we pass from * sits being read
to * to * is being read to.*
The idiom formed by the adjection of a present participle to being,
for the purpose of expressing continuous action, may here be re-
levantly adverted to. Examples of it are abundant.
** Being gaping a-slepe." Bishop Bale, The Vocacgon, &c. (1553),
The Harleian Miscellany (ed. Oldys and Park), Vol. 6, p. 457.
" Robin Good-fellow being walkifig, onej night," &c. Robin Good-
fellow, &c. (bef. 1588 ?), p. 38 (ed. 1841).
" Being eating of oysters '*, " being a-carousingJ* TarltorCs Jests,
&c. (ed. Mr. J. 0. Halliwell), pp. 6, 8.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 33(
The analogical justification of is being built which
I have brought forward is so obvious, that, as it
occurred to myself more than twenty years ago,
so it must have occurred spontaneously to hundreds
besides. It is very singular that those who, like Mr.
Marsh and Mr. White, have pondered long and
painfully over locutions typified by e.s being built,
should have missed the real ground of their gram-
matical defensibleness, and should have warmed
themselves, in their opposition to them, into uttering
opinions which no calm judgment can accept.
" One who is being beaten '' is, to Archbishop
Whately, "uncouth English." "'The bridge is
being built/ and other phrases of the like kind, have
pained the eye " of Mr. David Booth. Such phrases,
according to Mr. M. Harrison, " are not English."
To Professor J. W. Gibbs, "this mode of expres-
sion .... appears formal and pedantic ; " and " the
easy and natural expression is, ' The house is build-
ing.^ " ^ In all this, little or nothing is discernible
beyond sheer prejudice, the prejudice of those who
" Jieinff then preaching.''* Thomas Fuller, Abel Redevivus, p. 229.
" Two large wax candles were also set on another tahle, the ladies
being going to cards.*' De Foe, The Political History of the Devil (ed.
1840), p. 336.
** After which, the sun being now setting j* &c. Graves, The Spirit-
ual Quixote (ed. 1820), Vol. 2, p. 193.
** Merchant, with some rudeness, demanded a room, and was told that
there was a good fire in the next parlour, which the company were
about to leave, being then paging their reckoning.'* Dr. Johnson,
Life of Savage.
These extracts illustrate forcibly what nice distinctions of tense
we are enabled, by the flexibility of our conjugation, to give expression
to.
* I am here indebted to Dr. "Worcester's Dictionary^ Preface, p.
xxxix.
22
338 APPENDIX.
resolve to take their stand, quite regardless of utility,
against an innovation, simply because it is an inno-
vation, and who are ready to find an argument
against it in any random epithet of disparagement
provoked by unreflecting aversion. And the more
recent denouncers in the same line have no more
reason on their side than their elder brethren.
In Mr. Marshes estimation, is being built illustrates
" corruption of language ; *' it is " clumsy and un-
idiomatic ; " ^ it is, " at best, but a philological cox-
combry;"^ it "is an awkward neologism, which
neither convenience, intelligibility, nor syntactical
congruity demands, and the use of which ought,
therefore, to be discountenanced,- as ah attempt at
the artificial improvement of the language, in a point
which needed no amendment."^ Again: "To re-
ject^' is building, in favour of the modern phrase,
"is to violate the laws of language by an arbitrary
change ; and, in this particular case, the proposed
substitute is at war with the genius of th^ English
tongue."* Mr. Marsh seems to fancy, that, wher-
ever he intimates a beauty in is building, he points
out, inclusively, a blemish in is being built.
The fervour with which Mr. White advances to
the charge is altogether tropical. "The fiiU ab-
surdity of this phrase, the essence of its nonsense,
seems not to have been hitherto pointed out." It is
" a new phrase which has nothing of force or of
accuracy in its favour." It is not " consistent with
1 Lectures, &c., p. 649. * Ibid,, p. 664. 3 Ibid., p. 649.
* Ibid., p. 656. It is quite beyond me to conjecture in what sense
Mr. Marsh here talks of '* an arbitrary change."
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 339
reason ; " and it is not " conformed to the normal
development of the language." It is " a monstrosity,
the illogical, confusing, inaccurate, unidiomatic cha-
racter of which I have, at some length, but yet im-
perfectly, set forth.'* "In fact, it* means nothing,
and is the most incongruous combination of words
and ideas that ever attained, respectable usage in any
civilized language.'' These be " prave ^ords ; " and
it seems a pity that so much sterling objurgatory
ammunition should be expended in vain. And that
it is so expended, thinks Mr. White himself; for,
though passing sentence in the spirit of a Jeffreys,
he is not, really, on the judgment-seat, but on the
lowest hassock of despair. As concerns the mode of
expression exemplified by is being built, he owns,
that, " to check its diffusion would, be a hopeless
undertaking." If so, why not reserve himself for
service against some evil not avowedly beyond
remedy ?
Again we read : " Some precise and feeble-minded
soul, having been taught that there is a passive voice
in English, and that, for instance, building is an
active participle, and builded or built a passive, felt
conscientious scruples at saying ' the house is build-
ing,^ For what could the house build ? " As children
say at play, Mr. White bums here. A participle it
was, no question, though not builty but being built,
that excited, in his hypothetical " precise and feeble-
minded soul," " conscientious scruples at saying * the
house w building ' ; " and, if Mr. White had hit upon
the right participle, I suspect his chapter on Is Being
Done would have been much shorter than it is at
340 APPENDIX.
present, and very different. " The fatal absurdity in
this phrase" consists, he tells us, "in the combina-
tion of is with being ; ^ in the making of the verb to
be a supplement,'* or, in grammarians' phrase, an
auxiliary to itslelf,^ — an absurdity so palpable, so
monstrous, so ridiculous, that it should need only to
be pointed out to be scouted." Lastly : " The ques-
tion is, thus, narrowed simply to this : Does to be
^ " This is being wicked for wickedness' sake." Charles Johnson,
Chrysal (ed. 1777), vol. 2, p. 65.
" This is being candid indeed." Miss Buraey, Cecilia, Book 3, Ch. 7.
And so we all say every day; perpetrating, with " fatal absurdity,'*
" the combination of is with being.**
2 Changed, in Mr. White's new edition, into "complement." The
first reading gave rise to my remark, in 1871, at the end of note 1
in the next page.
3 By what linguistic criterion, I beg to know, is such a " supple-
ment" as Mr. White refers to made out to be an absurdity.^ No one
is better aware than the true philologist, of the hazard attending
generalizations and universal assertions. In Hindi and Urdu, * be-
coming ' is hot& huuj literally, * being been ' ; the present imperfect
is main hotd hurt, literally, * I am being' ; * I had been ' is main hud
thd, literally, * I was been ' ; * I may have been ' is main hud hungd,
literally, * I shall be been ', &c. &c. So, in Persian, * I had been ' is
shudah budam, literally, * I was having been ' ; ' I shall have been ' is
bMah busham, literally, * I may be having been *.
I shall recur, a little further on, to the point here adverted to. In
the mean time, I will only add, that I need not have gone to Asia for
facts subversive of Mr. "White's assumption. Even the neo-Latin lan-
guages are, more than one of them, conclusive as against it ; and so is
the German.
Is being thus has many parallels in language. In this expression,
of two parts of a verb, one is made to qualify the other, just as in has
had. If, then, is being is absurd to Mr. White, the old-fashioned has
had ought to be equally absurd to him ; for the self -qualification of, in
Mr. White's phraseology, " simple absolute existence, or whatever at-
tribute follows it," must be quite on a par with the qualification of
possession by possession : if * existent beings ' is not to be borne,
neither is * having possessions.' And still worse, to him, should be is
becoming, in which * simple absolute existence ' qualifies process. For
who can imagine a condition of simultaneous station and motion P
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 341
being (esse ens) mean anything more or other than
to be ? "
Having convicted Mr. "White of a mistaken
analysis, I am not concerned with the observations
which he founds on his mistake. However, even if
his analysis had been correct, some of his arguments
would avail him nothing. For instance, is being
built, on his understanding of it, that is to say, is
being -\- built, he represents by ens cedificatus est, as
*' the supposed corresponding Latin phrase."^ The
Latin is illegitimate ; and he infers, that, therefore,
the English is the same. But cedificans est, a trans-
lation, on the model which he oflfers, of the active is
building, is quite as illegitimate as ens cedifieattis est}
By parity of non-sequitur, we are, therefore, to sur-
render the active is building. Assume that a phrase
in a given language is indefensible, unless it has its
^ " It is being is simply equal to it is. And, in the supposed cor-
responding Latin phrases, ens foetus est, ens adijicatus est (the obso-
leteness of eus^ as a participle, bein^^ granted), the monstrosity is not
in the use of ens vf'i^ foetus, but in that of ens with est. The absurdity
is, in Latin, just what it is in English, the use of is with being, the
making of the verb to be 2i complement to itself."
In writing thus, Mr. White recognizes no more difference between
supplement and complement than he recognizes between be and exist.
See the preceding page, note 2, and p. 335, note 2, supra.
^ Is being done, we are told, " is a worthy offspring of English
grammar ; a fitting, and, I may say, an inevitable, consequence of the
attempt to make our mother-tongue order herself by Latin rules and
standards."
^Vhat is there in Latin, — which helplessly leaves it doubtful whether
amor is to mean * I am loved *, or * I am being loved ', — to suggest is
being done ? This very doubtfulness, if anything.
Mr. White is unfortunate in his Latin. But where is he not un-
fortunate ? The French se bdtissait, and the Italian sUdificava and
a' apporechehiava, he takes to be preterites, and translates them by
" was built " and " was prepared." ^
342 APPENDIX.
counterpart in some other language ; from the very
conception and definition of an idiom, every idiom is
illegitimate.^
I now pass to another point. " To he and to exist
are," to Mr. Whitens apprehension, "perfect sy-
nonyms, or more nearly perfect, perhaps, than any
two verbs in the language.^ In some of their TOean-
ings, there is a shade of difference ; but, in others,
there is none whatever; and the latter are those
which serve our present purpose. When we say,
' He, being forewarned of danger, fled/ we say, * He,
existing forewarned of danger, fled.' When we say,
that a thing is done, we say that it exists done.
When we say, * That being done, I shall be satisfied,'
we say, * That existing done, I shall be satisfied/ Is
being done is simply exists existing done.'' But, if
is and exists be equipollent, and so being and exist-
ing, is being is the same as the unimpeachable is ex-
isting. Q. non E. D. Is existing ought, of course,
to be no less objectionable, to Mr. White, than is
being. Just as absurd, too, should he reckon the
Italian sono stato, era stato, sia stato,fossi stato, saro
stato, sarei stato, essere stato, and essendo stato. For,
in Italian, both essere and stare are required to make
^ I here use idiofn in its strictest acceptation. " By idiom is meant
that use of words which is peculiar to a particular language." Dr. J.
H. Newman, Lectures and Essays on University Subjects, p. 160.
** Every language, more especially the English, has its idioms, which
we should not register, with grammarians and lexicographers, among
its irregularities, but, with poets and orators, number among its
beauties." Colman, The Gentleman, No. 3.
2 In his new edition, Mr. White has : " To be and to exist, if not
perfect synonyms, are more nearly so, perhaps, than any two verbs in
the language."
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 343
up the verb substantive/ as, in Latin, both esse and
the oflFspring of fuere are required ; ^ and siare, pri-
marily, ' to stand,^ is modified into a true auxiliary.*
The alleged " full absurdity of this phrase,'' — to- wit,
is being built, — "the essence of its nonsense," vanishes,
thus, into thin air.* So I was about to comment
^ So, in German, both sein and an outgrowth of the obsolete weaen
are required to the same end. Ich bin geweaen is the counterpart of
to 80110 atato.
' Agglutinations I purposely pass by, as belonging to the region of
speculation. The classical scholar will not need to be reminded, that,
in fueramj faeroy &c., the verbs fuere and esse are supposed, by some,
to be welded together.
3 As Landor notices,— in his Worka^ Vol. 2, p. 72, — Milton, more
than once, Italianizes his verbs, and imitates atavano pregandoj where
he writes, at the beginning of the Eleventh Book of The Faradiae
Loat :
" Thus they, in lowliest plight, repentant atood
Praying*'
Just before, Adam and Eve " prostrate fell " ; and we have no in-
timation that they had risen to their feet.
^ Ecference to the present Appendix, as, in essentially its present
shape, it first appeared, is made in the following passages.
" I have twice gone attentively through Dr. Hall's article,
and 1 did so with the purpose, I might also say the hope, of finding
occasion for the modification of my judgment. I found, on the con-
trary, not a single point brought up which I had not carefully con-
sidered before, as could be sliown, if the chapter and the article were
printed side by side. Dr. Hall reat^hes one conclusion ; I, another. I
venture to say, that this is possible, without my being arrogant or
unwise. It is not the first case, in the annals of literature, in which
arguments thought to be overwhelming by those on whose side they
were used, were regarded as not at all so by those against whom they
were directed." Mr. R. G. White, Letter in The Nation^ March
13, 1873.
" As there is not a view that he [Dr. Hall] presents, which I had
not previously considered and rejected in my chapter on the subject,
any mention of his article would have been, at least, superfluous. The
Nation decides that my assailant (not my * antagonist,' if you please)
is right throughout," &c Ibid., Letter in The New York Timea, June
7, 1873.
344 APPENDIX.
bluntly, not forgetting to regret, that any gentle-
man's cultivation of logic should fructify in the shape
As I have pointed out in a previous foot-note, Mr. White has
thought certain facts of history, hearing on is being built, &c., well
worth helping himself to from my pages ; and he has helped himself
to them in perfect quiet. Would m^ition of his obligation to me
therefor also have come under the head of the " superfluous" ?
However wide may be the prevalence of anything in the way of
language, Mr. White's great principle is, that you can say very little
for it, unless you can justify it by reason. Fancying himself within
the charmed circle of science, he misanalysed is being built into ia
being t built ; and, on the implied ground of its Ibeing only thus ana-
lysable, and to the effect of yielding an absurd element, i% being^ he
passed sentence on it, as unendurable. I, for my part, formally
analysed the expression, and analogically, into is + being built ; and it
has not been shown that I was not original in this my formal analysis,
at least as regards setting it forth in print. If Mr. White knew of
this analysis before he read my paper, why did not he upset it ; the
upsetting of it being indispensable to the setting up of his own
analysis ? And, now that he knows of my analysis, why does not he
expose its sophisticalness, if it be sophistical } Does he really take in
my argument ? As The Nation puts it, " if Mr. White cannot see the
point, his perspicacity is not to be envied." Further, if he cannot,
what is his aptitude for philology ?
Charged with having buried my " adverse arguments under the pro-
foundest silence,*' he replies, as we have seen, that he had anticipatively
considered and rejected every view that I present, and, addressing
my friendly reviewer, asserts, that he has " the right to protest against
your unmistakable implication, that I shrink from argument, under
the cover of a cowardly silence." Vague assertions and a bold front
are not refutation ; and, as to the first, if he can circumstantiate, to
his advantage, those which he has ventured, why does he hesitate to
do so }
To bring out clearly Mr. White*s utter impracticability as a philo-
logist, I subjoin extracts from his two Prefaces, with a few words of
comment thereon.
" To assault any position of mine, which is not, itself, taken upon
the ground of usage, by bringing up the * authority,' that is, the
mere example, of eminent writers, is at once to beg the question at
issue."
In other words, whether, as regards any given expression, the con-
current practice of eminent writers is extensive enough, or sufficiently
grounded in reason, to constitute iisage, is a matter of which Mr.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 345
of irrepressible tendencies to suicide. But this would
be precipitate. Agreeably to one of Mr. Whitens
judicial placita, which I make no apology for citing
twice, " no man who has preserved all his senses will
doubt, for a moment, that ' to exist a mastiff or a
mule ' is absolutely the same as * to be a, mastiff or a
mide.' *' Declining to admit their identity, I have
not preserved all my senses ; and, accordingly, —
though it may be, in me, the very superfetation of
lunacy, — I would caution the reader to keep a sharp
eye on ray arguments, hereabouts particularly. The
Cretan who, by declaring all Cretans to be liars, left
the question of his veracity doubtfiil to all eternity,
fell into a pit of his own digging. Not unlike the
unfortunate Cretan, Mr. White has tumbled head-
long into his own snare. It was, for the rest, en-
tirely unavailing, that he insisted on the insanity of
those who should gainsay his fundamental postulate.*
White alone is to be judge. He may take his stand on what he con-
siders to be usage ; but, if others, without his permission, presume to
take their stand on what they consider to be usage, they at once ** beg
the question at issue.'' A hard saying, this, for all who are not will-
ing to accept Mr. White as absolute philological dictator.
Again : ** The points from which I have regarded words are, in
general, rather those of taste and reason than of history; and my
discussions are philological, only as all study of words must be philo«>
logical."
But, as concerns words, how, without historical knowledge, ac-
quaintance with usage, is one to ascertain their conformity, or incon-
formity, to taste ^ Intuition guides us in our preference as between
strawberries and coloquintida ; but it would never teach us not to call
a person a party. As to reason, Mr. White's endowment of it has led
him to denounce militate as " absurd", and to similar conclusions by
dozens. Of his closing clause the darkness is well nigh impenetrable.
Unless he thereby assumes the privilege of philologizing without in-
curring a philologist's responsibilities, his drift has eluded me.
^ Mr. White is rather addicted, in a metaphorical way, to hoyering
346
APPENDIX.
Sanity, of a crude sort, may accept it ; and sanity
may put it to a use other than its propounder's.
Mr. Marsh, after setting forth the all-sufficiency
of 18 building, in the passive sense,* goes on to say :
" The reformers who object to the phrase I am de-
fending must, in consistency, employ the proposed
substitute with all passive participles, and in other
tenses as well as the present. They must say, there-
fore : * The subscription-paper is being missed, but I
know that a considerable sum is being wanted to make
up the amount ; ' ' the great Victoria Bridge has been
being built more than two years ; ' ' when I reach
London, the ship Leviathan will be being built ; ' * if
my orders had been followed, the coat would have been
being made yesterday ;* *if the house had then been
being built, the mortar tcould have been being mixed/ *'^
about the melancholy precincts of the mad. ** To this day we say,
every man and boy of us who is not fitter for Bedlam than many who
are sent there, * There is a storm a-brewing \ as our forefathers have
said for centuries."
Besides, what point is there in this ? Brew is not exclusively a verb
active, any more i\i2LH gather^ as where we say * the clouds are gathering ,*
^ The dead Polonius was, in Hamlet's phrase, at supper, "not
where he eats^ but where he t* eaten" ; and Mr. "White takes is eaten
to be, here, a present imperfect. As such, it would be ambiguous ; and
yet Mr. White commends Shakespeare for it, though is in eating would
have been not only correct in his day, but, where it would have come
in his sentence, univocal. With equal reason, a man would be entitled
to commendation for tearing his mutton-chops with his fingers, when
he might cut them up with a knife and fork. " Is eaten^^ says Mr.
White, "does not mean has been eaten.** Very true ; but what it does
mean, he, though an editor of Shakespeare, is very far from seeing.
The eats and is eaten in question are aoristic ; and the character of an
aorist is to abstract from any definite time, past, present, or future.
The King of Denmark's lord chamberlain had no precedent in Herod,
when " he was eaten of worms ; " the original, ycvo/ievoc <ricwXijB<5-
/3pwroc, yielding, but for its participle, * he became worm-eaten.'
2 Lectures^ &c., p. 654. Professor Fowler argues in the same way.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 347
There was a time when, as to their adverbs, people
compared them, to a large extent, with -er and -est,
or with more and most, just as their ear or pleasure
dictated. They wrote plainlier and plainliesf, or more
2)lain/f/ BLiii most plainly ;^ and some adverbs, as early ,
late, often, seldofn, and soon, we still compare in a way
now become anomalous. And, as our forefathers
treated their adverbs, we stiir treat many adjectives.
Furthermore, obligingness, preparedness, and designedly
seem quite natural ; yet we do not feel that they
authorize us to talk of ' the seeing ness of the eye,'
' the understoodness of a sentence,' or of * a statement
acknowledgedly correct.' The now too notorious fact is
tolerable ; but the never to be sufficiently execrated mon-
ster Buonaparte is intolerable. The sun may be shorn
of his splendour ; but we do not allow cloudy weather
to shear him of it. How, then, can any one claim,
that a man who prefers to say is being built, should
say has been being built ? While awkward instances
of the old form are most abundant in our literature,
there is no fear that the repulsive elaborations which
have been worked out in ridicule of the new form ^
*• Expressions like the following haTC, for some years, been stealing
into the language : * While the house was being burned % instead of
* while the house was bunting* ; * while the battle was being foug /it**
instead of * while the battle was foitght* , Some expressions like these
are awkward, and difficult to b^ dealt with. Is it not better to say
* He will find the house will be building ', than to say * He will find
the house will be being built * f Is it not better to say ' I knew the
liouse to be building *, than to say * I knew the house to be being built * ?**
JCnglish Grammar (ed. 1855), p. 605.
* Vide supra ^ p. 188.
' Mr. White, with his usual infelicity in drawing conclusions, writes
ns follows: *' If precise affectation can impose upon us such a phrase
as is being done, for is doing, it must needs drive all idioms kindred
348 APPENDIX.
will prove to have been anticipations of future usage.
" The reformers ^' have not forsworn their ears.
Mr. Marsh, at p. 135 of his admirable Lectures, lays
down, that " the adjective reliable, in the sense of
icorthy of confidence, is altogether unidiomatic ; " and
yet, at p. 112, he writes " reliable evidence." Again,
at p. 396 of the same work, he rules, that " we should
scruple to say ' I passed a house whose windows were
open ' ; " and, at p. 145 of his very learned Man and
Nature, he writes of " a quadrangular pyramid, the
perpendicular of whose sides," &c. Really, if his own
judgments sit so very loose on his practical conscience,
we may, without being chargeable with exaction, ask
of him to remit a little the rigour of his require-
ments at the hands of his neighbours.
Beckford's Lisbon for time- teller, before had into
court, was ^^ dragging into light," and, perchance,
" was taking to account." Many moderns woidd say
and write * being dragged into light ' and * was being
taken to agcount.' But, if we are to trust the con-
servative critics, in comparison with expressions of
to the latter from the language. Our walking sticks^ our fishing rods,
and onr fasting dags, because they cannot walk, or Jish, or fastf must
be changed into to-be-walked-with sticks, to^be-Jished-with rods, and tO'
be-fasted'on days ; and our church-going bells must become for-to-
church-go bells, because they are not the belles that go to church.
Such ruin comes of laying presumptuous hands upon idioms, those
sacred mysteries of language. "
The true character of the terms walking-stick, fishing-rod, &c., is
here misunderstood. The first member of each of these compounds is
static, and, consequently, no longer a participle. Moreover, if Mr.
White's principles were correctly applied, walking-stick, for instance,
would demand resolution into stick-that-is-being-walked-with. See
my remarks on churchgoing-bell, &c., in Recent Exemplifications of
False Fhilology, p. 4, text and note 2. ^
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 349
the former pattern, those of the latter are " uncouth,"
** clumsy," "awkward neologisms," "philological
coxcombries," " formal and pedantic," " incongruous
and ridiculous forms of speech," "illogical, con-
fusing, inaccurate monstrosities." Moreover, they
are neither " consistent with reason '' nor " con-
formed to the normal development of the language ; "
they are " at war with the genius of the English
tongue;" they are " unidiomatic ; " they are "not
English." In passing, if Mr. Marsh will so define
the term unidiomatic, as to evince that it has any
applicability to the case in hand, or if he will arrest
and photograph "' the genius of the English tongue,"
so that we may know the original, when we meet
with it, he will confer a public favour. And now
I submit for consideration, whether the sole credit
of those who decry is being built and its congeners,
does not consist in their talent for calling hard
names. If they have not an uneasy subconscious-
ness that their cause \\ weak, they would, at least,
do well in eschewing the violence to which, for want
of something better, the advocates of weak causes
proverbially resort.
I once had a friend who, for some microscopic
penumbra of heresy, was charged, in the words of his
accuser, with " as near an approach jto the sin against
the Holy Ghost as is practicable to human infirmity."
Similarly, on one view, the feeble potencies of philo-
logical turpitude seem to have exhibited their most
consummate realization, in engendering is being built.
The supposed enormity perpetrated in its production,
provided it had fallen within the sphere of ethics,
350 APPENDIX.
would, at the least, have ranked, with its denuncia-
tors, as a brand-new exemplification of total de-
pravity. But, after all, what incontestable defect in
it has any one succeeded in demonstrating ? Mr.
White, in opposing to the expression objections
based on an erroneous analysis, simply lays a phan-
tom of his own evoking;^ and, so far as I am in-
formed, other impugners of is being built have,
absolutely, no argument whatever against it, over
and beyond their repugnance to novelty. Subjected
to a little untroubled contemplation, it would, I am
confident, have ceased, long ago, to be matter of
controversy. But the dust of prejudice and passion,
which so distempers the intellectual vision of the-
ologians and politicians, is seen to make, with ruth-
less impartiality, no exception of the perspicacity of
philologists.
Prior to the evolution of is being built and was
being built, we possessed no discriminate equivalents
of cedificatur and (edificabatur ; is built and was built,
by which they were rendered, corresponding exactly
to cedijicatus est and cedificatus erat. ^dificaretur —
after cum, — was, to us, the same as cedificabatur. On
the wealth of the Greek in expressions of imperfect
^ So much for the career of Mr. White, with his black flag and
no quarter. In appearing as an essayist on the niceties of language,
he has wandered from his congenial element, which, whatever it may
be, is not criticism; and the self-confident iraperiousness and the im-
petuous disdain which too often disfigure his pages, are all the more
provocative of raillery, from being associated, at every turn, with tokens
of haste, caprice, and imperfect information. Of that equanimity,
circumspection, patience of research, intellectual discipline, and equip-
ment of micrological scholarship, without which it is given to no man
to be a philologist, he has, unhappily, made the most penurious
provision.
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 351
passion I need not dwell. With rare exceptions, the
Romans were satisfied with the present imperfect and
the past imperfect; and we, on the comparatively
few occasions which present themselves for express-
ing other imperfects, shall be sure to have recourse
to the old forms, rather than to the new, or else to
use periphrases.^ The purists maj^ accordingly, dis-
miss their apprehensions, especially as the neoterists
have, clearly, a keener horror of phraseological
ungainliness than themselves. One may have no
hesitation about saying ' the house is being built,* and
yet may recoil from saying that * it should have been
being built last Christmas ; ' and the same person —
just as, provided he did not feel a harshness, inade-
quacy, and ambiguity, in the passive ' the house is
building y he would use the expression, — will, more
likely than not, elect is in preparation, preferentially
to is being prepared. If there be any who, in their
zealotry for the congruous, choose to adhere to the
new form, in its entire range of exchangeability for
the old, let it be hoped that they will find, in Mr.
1 '* But those things which, beingi not now doin^f or having not yet
been done, have a natural aptitude to exist hereafter, may be properly
said to appertain to the future." James Harris, Hermes, Book 1, Ch.
8 (p. 156, foot-note, ed. 1771). For Harris's ^'' being not now doings**
which is to translate fi^ yivofAtvUf the modern school, if they pursued
uniformity with more of fidelity than of taste, would have to put ' be-
ing not now being done* There is not much to choose between the ti^o.
** And a book was then said to be printed, though 1 never saw any
but one of late with any date of the year ; the things then being in
Jleri, when it was printed." Dr. Horneck, in Saddueismus IVium-
phatus (ed. 1726), p. 363.
Dr. Horneck resorts to the Latin, where Harris, more boldly,
writes " being doing."
Compare with Harris's expression the expressions quoted in note
1 to p. 336, supra.
352 APPENDIX.
Marsh's speculative approbation of consistency, full
amends for the discomfort of encountering smiles or
frowns.
The ambiguousness of the old neuter possessive
hin ^ was not, even by very long prescription, inde-
feasibly sanctified to our practical forefathers. With
the him of himself^ for a precedent, — if they thought
of it as such, and if, in improving our language, they
governed themselves, except unconsciously, by pre-
cedents, — they first tried, in place of this hky it^
* In Exodm^ 27, 2 and 3, hx% refers to "altar"; in the Psalms ^
64, 7, to "eye" ; in St, MattheWy 6, 33, to " kingdom" ; in Acts,
12, 10, to "gate"; and in 1 Cor., 15, 38, to "seed". In some of
these passages, the Geneva version has it.
His is the Anglo-Saxon possessive of hoth he and hit (our it),
* His self was used in the Elizabethan period, and earlier. See
Bishop Bale, A Brefe Chronycle, &c. (1544), in Select Works (1849),
p. 39 : Kynge Johan (ed. 1838), p. 98. Questions of Frojitable and
Pleasant Concernings (1594), fol. 31 r. The vulgar use it still.
Themselves, of old, like himself had its rivals, and as regarded both its
elements.
Them self Lydgate, Minor Foems (ed. 1840), p. 108. Simon Fish
{eirc. 1629), Four Supplications (ed. 1871), p. 10. Sir Thomas More,
ApoUHjye (1633), fol. 7, b^. Sir Thomas Elyot, The Govemour (1531),
fol. 85 (ed. 1680).
Them seffs. Udall, Apophthegmes, &c. (1642), fol. 106, 306. Also
see Raphe Robynson, as quoted supra, p. 332, note 2.
Their self Ascham, Toxophilus (1645), pp. 44, 69, 101 (ed. 1868).
ThHr selves. Id., The Scholemaster (1570), p. 97 (ed. 1870).
3 The Anglo-Saxon form hit is found, interchangeably with it, as
nominative, &c., in Lydgate, Sir Thomas More, Sir Thomas Elyot, and
writers of their times. Shortly before, only hit occurs ; shortly after,
only it, %
In the central parts of North Carolina, it appears, it is even now
pronounced hit. See a letter by Mr. Fisk P. Brewer, in The Nation,
Feb. 27, 1873.
Him is, in one passage, used, by Ascham, for it. " But take hede
that youre bowe stande not to nere a stone wall ; for that wyll make
hym moyste and weke ; nor yet to nere any fier ; for that wyll make
him shorte and brittle." Toxophilus (1546), p. 119 (ed. 1868).
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 353
neuter as to gender, and objective as to ease, and
wrote " of it own accord ".^ Time rolled on, and, in
its fulness, emerged the scholastic opprobrium of his
age, the inventor of its.^ For what can be said in
Hitf as a possessive, — see Dr. Morris's £arli/ English Alliterative
Poeim (ed. 1864), p. 46, 1. 264, and p. 66, 1. 966,-— was in provincial
use at least from about 1360. Also see The Anturs of Arther, &c.,
in Three Early English Metrical Romances (1842), p. 6, 11. 2, 3.
* This, or, rather, ** of it owne accord *', is the true reading of Le-
viticus^ 25, 5.
Did itj for * its ', survive the Restoration ? It was not quite obso-
lete just before.
" If merit be all-sufficient to entitle it possessor to preferment, what
merit gieater then what is resident in persons in holy orders?"
Ilamon L'Estrange, The Reign of King Charles (ed. 1656), p. 37.
^ The earliest instance of Us that I know to have been pointed out,
occurs in Florio, A Worlde of Wordes (1598).
Shakespeare, it has been shown, has, by the Folio of 1623, its ten
times, and it, in the same sense, fifteen times. See The Bible Word-
booky by Messrs. J. Eastwood and W. Aldis Wright, pp. 273 — 275.
*^ Ben Jonson neither employs its in his works, nor recognizes it in
his Grammar." Mr. Marsh, Lectures, &c., p. 399.
This statement is partly erroneous. As Dr. Abbott has observed,
Ben Jonson employs its in The St lent Woman, Act 2, Scene 3. See
A Shakespearian Grammar (ed. 1871), p. 151.
Some old writers, before the introduction of its, denoted an insen-
tient object by ?ie and him^ especially when there was occasion to refer
to it by the neuter possessive, then his. And the relative of such a
he or him was who. Puttenham is rather fond of this style of con-
struction.
" The sharpe accent falles upon the penultima, or last save one
Billable of the verse, which doth so drowne the last, as he seemeth to
passe away in manor unpronounced.*' The Arte of English Pocsie, p. 59.
*' A sta£fe of sixe verses is very pleasant to the eare, and also serveth
for a greater complement then the inferiour staves, which maketh him
more commonly to be used." Id., p. 55.
" Both ver^s be of egall qnantitie, vidz., seaven Billables a pcece ;
and yet the first seemes shorter then the later, who shewes a more
odncsse then the former, by reason of his sharpe accent," &c. Id,, p. 59.
Similar illustrations might be given from Ascham and many other
Elizabethan authors. See note 3 in the preceding page.
Whom^ in old times, was often used for which. See Bishop Bale,
23
354 APPENDIX.
defence of tliis yerbal Yahoo P As has, again and
again, been pointed out, it would have a precise par-
allel in the Latin portent illudius, where one case-
ending is adjoined to another, instead of displacing
it. The word, viewed scientifically, is monstrous,
certainly ; and yet, as it was needed, it eventually
came to be accepted by everybody, though not with-
out a weary struggle ; ^ even as it took several
Select Works (1849), pp. 140, 147, &c. ; also, my Becent Exemplifica-
tianSf &c., p. 7, note 1, adjinem.
* Among the early writers who employ, lY* with peculiar frequency,
Mabhe is noticeable. In The Eogue^ which he published in 1623, it
is found, I should say, several score times.
To the philologist The Rogue is of great value. The high en-
comium passed, by Ben Jonson, on this translation, its language in-
cluded, is well deserved. This encomium, which has escaped Jonson's
editors, is here transcribed.
" On the Author, Worke, and Translator.
** Who tracks this authors, or translators, pen.
Shall finde that either hath read bookes and men :
To say but one were single. Then it chimes.
When the old words doe strike on the new times,
As in this Spanish Proteus ; who, though writ
But in one tongue, was form'd with the worlds wit ;
And hath the noblest marke of a good booke,
That an ill man dares not securely looke
Upon it, but will loath, or let it passe.
As a deformed face doth a true glasse.
Such bookes deserve translators of like coate-
As was the genius wherewith they were wrote :
And this hath met that one that may be stil'd
More then the foster-father of this child.
For, though Spaine gave him his firat ayre and vogue,
He would be call'd, henceforth, T?ie English Rogue,
But that hee 's too well suted, in a cloth
Finer then was his Spanish, if my oath *
Will be received in court : if not, would I
Had cloath'd him so. Here 's all I can supply
To your desert, who have done it, friend. And this
Faire aemulation, and no envy, is,
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 355
generations to get rid of phrases like * the man his
name\^ And, as were the tinal fortunes of its, so.
When you behold me wish my selfe the man
That would have done that which you onely can.
Ben Jonson."
* In England, to this day, the vulgar write, in their Bibles, Prayer-
books, and elsewhere, *^John Cratw hit book", ** Esther Hodges her
book '*, &c.
*' Abtam hi* name '*, and *^ Sarai her name ". Genesis^ 17> heading.
** Arteucerxes his lettero". 1 Esdras, 2, 30. *' Darius his pillow".
Ibid., 3, 8. ** Oiofernes his heart". Judith, 12, 16. " Olof ernes his
head ". Ibid.^ 13, 9. And other such eipressions might be quoted from
the Bible.
In Ruth, 3, heading, there is a modem sophistication of *•* Naomi
her instruction", and of ** Boaz his feete"; in 1 Kings, 15, 14, of
** Asa his heart " ; and, in Esther, 3, 4, of *' Mordecai his matters."
I here give the readings of the edition of 1611.
** Socrates his disciples ", *' Xenophon his house ", ** every bodye his
hande." Udail, Apophthegtnes, &c., fol. 21, 32, 149. '* Aristotle his
judgement." Ascham, 2'iucophilus, p. 46. But, at p. 56, we have
•* Chancers verses." And Ascham puts his after the plural. " Other
men his lippes.'* Ibid,, p. 30. ** Plato and Aristotle his brayne."
Ibid , p. 41. At p. 44, in " more like Robin Koode servaunt than Apol-
lose ", we find both the absence of inflexion and a modification of the
present use.
i^ike Ascham*s '^ other m^n his lippes " is '^ Ilere gynneth a dyt^ of
women his horiiys,'* the heading which Lydgate gives to his ballad on
the forked head-dresses of ladies. See his Minor Poems, p. 46.
As in ** Robin ffoode servaunt", the equivalent of *« was once freely
forgone, where the addition of it would have produced cacophony.
** Findarus sand ", ** Hercules race ", " Miltiades example ", " Lyeurgus
lawes", ** Oyrillus sonne", ** Cyrus carape". The French Academic^
Part r. (ed, 1589), pp. 162, 167, 192, 203, 490. ''Oiofernes head".
Judith, 13, 6. We have, in these phrases, the retention of a very old
usage. See Mr. Marsh, Lectures, &c., pp. 397 — 401.
*' But sucli answers are no testimony of the fact, but helps for the
searching out of truth ; so that, whether the party tortured his answer
be true or false, or whether he answer not at all, whatsoever he doth,
he doth it by right." Hobbes, H^orks (ed. Sir W. Molesworth), Vol.
2, p. 26.
This I have quoted for its extreme awkwardness.
'* Asa his heart *', and the like, even long after his, so construct-
ed, passed for a pronoun, was generally accepted. But, as the pro-
356 APPENDIX.
there is not much hazard in forecasting, will be those
of locutions like is being done and was being built.
noun his seemed absurd, unless referring to a male, and to one male
only, her and, to a certain extent, their came in.
Instances of her I have given irora the Bible, in its incorrupt form.
I add an instance of later date, and several instances of earlier date.
" They continued all along Queen Elizabeth Iter reign." Hamon
L'Estrange, The Alliance of Divine Offices (1659), p. 304.
"Wee doo not omytte Elizabeth Holland her bowse, newlio made in
Suffolk." State Fapers, &c., Vol. 1 (1830), p. 889. This passage
dates in 1546.
" In this his absence, one Curio, a gentleman of Naples, of little
wealth and lesse wit, haunted Lueilla hir company," &c. Lyly,
Euphues (1579-80), p. 94 (ed. 1868).
" had I not ben better abyd Amarillia her anger ? **
"Webbe, A Discourse of English Foetrie (1586), in Ancient Critical
Essay 8j &c.. Vol. 2, p. 76.
** Had I thought your maistership would have taken my free speeches
in so ill part, which concerned onely my selfe and my ready abilitie to
forward, to my power, my Prince her occasions and services, I would
have forborne to have uttered my minde, wherein I onely giieved that
any should exempt themselves, or forbeare to extend their uttermost
helpe and indevour in such good workes.*' Questions of Profitable
and Pleasant Concernings, &c. (1594), fol. 8 v.
Queen Elizabeth is here alluded to, and in a way, apparently making
her epicene, which now seems ludicrous.
*^ A little wasted cates stood us instead of Ltmillus and Appicias
their most sumptuous banquets." The Comical Jlistory of Francion
(1655), Book 3, p. 73.
" Catullus J Tibullus, and Propertius their unbridled lusts." Henry
Earl of Monmouth, Advertisements from Parnassus (ed. 1656), p. 354.
Gabriell Harvey, writing to Spenser, in 1580, speaks of " absurd-
ities" which "yl-favourcd orthographye, or, rather, pseudography,
hathe ingendred " ; and he goes on to instance, with " sithencef for
since" t **phantasief for phansie'\ &c. &c., *^^God hys wrath*, for
* Goddes wrath *,.... whereinlthe corrupte orthography, in the moste,
hathe beene the sole, or principall, cause of corrupte prosodye in over-
many." Ancient Critical Essays, &c.. Vol. 2, p. 281.
Charles Butler, one of our early grammarians, writes, under the
date of 1634 : " The Tcutonik termination of the genitive some refined
wit hath turned to his, pcrswading himself that s is but a corrupt
abbreviation of Ats, which hee thought necessary to restore; and,
therefore, hee wil not write * my masters son is a child ', but * my
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 357
Their history, short as it is, evinces that they were
wanted; as legitimate developments, they are un-
master his son is a child' ; which is just as good as if, ia Latin, hee
would say, not JieriJiliiM, bat herua e/us^lius, est infans,**
Ben Jonson, in his Orammar, — first printed in 1640, after his
death, — speaks of " the monstrous syntax of the pronoun his joining
with a noun, betokening a possessor ; as * the prince his house ', for
*^i\iQ princess house'.** Jonson, however, published, in 1605, — as I
see by the original edition, now lying before me, — his drama entitled
" Sejanus his Fall **, in the preface to which he speaks of " my ob-
servations upon Horace his * Art of Poetry ' " : and he has like ex-
pressions elsewhere.
And this ** monstrous syntax'*, consciously as such, is found in
books by the most learned authors, for the space of near two cent-
uries. Even Addison practised it ; as in The Spectator ^ Nos. 171, 183,
409. Not long after his time, however, — though it was not scorned by
Warburton and Sterne, — it fast fell into disrepute. When Horace
Walpole, in 1767, wrote "King Edward the Fourth his death",
doubtless his contemporaries looked on him as rather quaint, to say
the least. See Historic Doubts, &c. (ed. 1768), pp. 66, 67.
** The same single letter s on many occasions does the office of a
whole word, and represents the his and her of our forefathers.'*
Addison, The Spectator, No. 135. This is carelessly worded; but
Bishop Lowth*s comment on it is hardly fair. In one sense, s " repre-
sents **, certainly, the his and her of those among " our forefathers "
whose language, alone, Addison seems to have been conversant with.
Further, though Addison omitted to mention, still he no doubt knew,
that '* our forefathers ** who wrote, for instance, king his and queen
her, wrote kinges and queenes, also. No less uncritical than Addison
is the Bishop himself, in saying : ** * Christ his sake*, in our liturgy, is
a mistake, either of the printers or of the compilers." How ** a mis-
take", when nobody hesitated at such an expression.^ And do not
manuscripts abundantly prove that expressions of this sort need not be
set to the account of old printers ?
Where we write *«, to mark the possessive singular, there was, an-
ciently, in some masculine and neuter substantives, the syllable -es,
often corrupted into -ys, 'is, &c. ; as landes, landys, or landis, for
land's. Words like man*s, succeeding mannes, &c,, arose sooner than
words like church's, for which we find, much later, churches. In
prince's, and the like, equally with princes,— in. the first of which, the
apostrophe only precludes confusion with the plural, — we are obliged
to muke the possessive termination a distinct syllable ; but, in old
times, the possessives kinges^ nightes, &c., also, were dissyllables.
368 APPENDIX.
impeachable ; and their most inveterate assailants
must admit, bowever reluctantly, that, eyen among
" And to the God of loTe thus seyd he,
With pitoiis voys : * Lord, now youria is
The spiryt which that ought ever yonria he."
Chaucer, Fbetieal Works (ed. 1855), Vol. 5, p. 33.
In like manner, theirin^ &c., were, of yore, two syllables.
For several centuries, the rights of A were far from being rigidly
defined; and old authors often have hahle, habundanee, hangie, happle^
hearif helder^ hoak, howiet, hitaanee, &c., with abit, emtupheie, emoT'
rhoids, ierareh, oly^ t/mn, ypoerite^ yssop, &c. In the thirteenth, four-
teenth, and fifteenth centuries, as I could show from Koherd of
Gloucester, "William of Palerne, Capgrave, and a host of other author-
ities, his, the pronoun, was corrupted into f>. I shall make use, a
little further on, of the fact here shown, namely, that the initial h
was once prefixed, or omitted, with great carelessness.
" He was afered he was to slowe ;
He rose up he wyst not howe,
And brake out at a wyndow,
And brake fowle ps heed."
Lydgate, Minor Foema^ p. 113.
" The pryst toke a by pathe ; wyth them he wolde not mett ;
yit ys hed was fowle brokyn ; the blod ran dowen to ys fett.**
Id., ibid., p. 114.
" "Whilom the thridde hevenes lorde above,
As wel by hevenysh revolucioun,
As by desert, hath wonne Venus his love."
Chaucer, Vol. 8, p. 30.
** The Kinges Highnesse doith perceyve that the Queene is thoonly
cawse of this mannys goyng into Spaijrne, as he that is, and hath .bene
allways, prive unto the Qiiene his affaires and secretes." Secretary
William Knighte (1527), State Papers, &c., A'ol. 1 (1830), p. 215.
" And, where ye write to me that the Quene is good favour must be
alewred with geving hir one other moneth wagis for 200 men ", &c.
Duke of Norfolk (1524), State Papers, &c., Vol. 4 (1836), p. 225.
As, in the same page with this passage, the Duke of Norfolk uses
the possessives Qnenes and Kingis^ it is plain, that, in his " Q^ene
in'\ — with which compare "the moone is light", in Bishop Percy's
Folio Manuscript (1867-8), Vol. 1, p. 161, 1. 548,— we have simply
a resolution of Quenes, and not a corruption of the pronoun his, ap-
plied anomalously ; and, manifestly, Chaucer's his, in " Venus his ",
ENGLISH IMPERFECTS PASSIVE. 359
our best writers, the current is setting, day by day,
more and more strongly in their favour.
and Knighte's, ia '* Quene hU ", eihibit no such corraption. Neither,
where, as quoted at p. 355, aupra^ Lydgate has ** women hU hornys ",
and Ascham has ** men his. lippes ", can we readily suppose that they
intended Am for theirf but simply for a sign of the possessive case.
This hit, then, I incline to consider as having been, originally, de-
praved from -w, the possessive case-ending, taken as a substantive
word. At first it came by its h through carelessness, perhaps, or,
much less probably, from a wish to prevent its being mi^ken for the
verb is. That it was not, until a comparatively late period, identified
with the pronoun Aw, seems evident from the earliest date of such ex-
pressions as * the woman her child ', * the dog and eat their food '. If
the h of his for -t^, &o., began with being silent, the word did not, so
far as the ear was concerned, suggest the pronoun his, as, presumably,
ordinarily pronounced. It may have been its visible identity there-
with that led, at last, to its being coniPounded with it. This confusion,
however produced, naturally gave rise, when it had taken root, to the
analogous uses of her and their^ as in Hhe woman her ', a style of
phraseology which I have noticed no instance of earlier than the
sixteenth century.
The theory here set forth I worked out, in its entirety, many yean
ago. Taken as a whole, I do not know that it has been forestalled.
ADDITIONS.
P. 8. With the remarkB there quoted from Dr. Bentley, the follow-
ing, also hy him, ill harmonize.
*' Every living language, like* the perspiring bodies of living crea-
tures, is in perpetual motion and alteration. Some words g^ off, and
become obsolete ; others are taken in, and, by degrees, grow into com-
mon use ; or the same word is inverted to a new sense and notion,
which, in tract of time, makes as observable a change in the air and
feature of a language, as age makes in the lines and mien of a face."
JForks, Vol. 2, p. 1.
P. 8, note 1. In Book 3, p. 63, of The Comieal History of Fran-
Hon (1655), a translation, parallels of what are called *•* Dugardismes *'
are offered in ^^eom^ hav, &c., without e, and detor^ dout, without b,**
Richard Hodges, in The Flainest Direettotut, &c. (1649), p. 40,
among *' som special observations, very needful to bee known, for the
help of true writing," gives, as the first : *' Take heed, that you never
put a double consonant with an e in the end of any word ; for there is
no necessitie thereof. And the rather wee may bee bold so to do, be-
caus the learned, both in printing and writing, do daily practise it"
Exceptions are admitted ; and one of the earliest is the proper name
Anne, Hodges goes on to prescribe al {all), cal {call), lodg, judg, lae
(lack), nek {neck), medle {meddle), Jidle {Jiddle), feebl, ateepl, giv, liv,
hous, mous, &c. &c.
P. 45, 1. 20. Sepulture, in the sense of *■ sepulchre ', or * burial-
place', is used repeatedly by Lydgate. See his Minor Foeme (ed.
1840), pp. 60, 142, 148, 236.
P. 58, note 2. Instances like the following are not uncommon in
our older literature :
<^ He rose hym up, and priveliche he ia went
Into hys ohambre."
Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 64.
** Duryng my lyf, with many gret trespace,
By many wrong path wher I have myawent** &c.
Id., ibid., p. 241.
i:
n
ii
«
ADDITIONS. 361
P. 59, note 1. Gilt, for gild. Sir Thomas More, A Byahge (ed.
1629), fol. 8, 13. Quafty for quaff. Of the Olde God and the Netce,
&c. (ed. 1534), sig. 0.
Dr. Richardson's genealogy of the verb rent from reiid, through
"rended, rend'd", is not very plausible.
Many of our verbs, obsolete and current, end in a <^ for which there
is no etymological justification. Such a one is rounds for * whisper ',
the preterite of which had come, however, in 1649, to be identical, to
the ear, with the infinitiye. See Richard Hedges, T/ie Flaineat
Directions^ &c., p. 18. Funne^ which preceded our pounds occursu as
late as 1589. See Thomas Coghan, The Haven of Healthy Ch. 1, 111.
Udall, in his Apophthegtnesy fcc, has eompoutie, expoune, propoune^
eoune, for compound^ &c., which have no more respectable origin than
the vulgar drownd and gownd.
The freedom with which a superfluous <^once was tacked to certain
verbs, is illustrated by tlie two following extracts.
** By so dooyng, the bruite of that same his high praise and com-
mendacion was not to be hidden or pended within the limites & pre-
cmtes of grece." Udall, Apophthegmes, &c. (1542), fol. 217 ▼.
'* If thou, oh sillie booke, doe chaunce
To light into the hand
Of any such as takes delight
Ech others worke to acand,** &c.
John Norden, A Sinfull Mans Solace (1585), foL 161 v.
In the work last quoted, there occurs, in fol. 88 v., beetraughted,
which resembles Fuller's unshakened.
** Thou wmtedstf^ in Robert Southwell's A Hundred Meditations,
&c. (ed. 1873), p. 152, I take to be an error of the press.
P. 63, foot. Older than the passage from William Watson are the
following extracts.
** Such are they which, having godly wisdom, uttereth it according
to the talent given them of the Lord," &c. Bishop Bale, Select
Works (1849), p. 608.
*' For there is a God in heaven, that will, one day, aske accompt
what taletit he gave thee in his absence to use,*' &c. John Norden, A
SinfuU Mans Solace (1585), fol. 16 v.
P. 79, foot. For wert, instead of wasti other references to old
authors here follow. Bishop Bale, Kynge Johan (ed. 1838), p. 71 :
Select Works (1849), pp. 308, 309. John Norden, A Sinfull Mans
Solace (1585), fol. 67 r. Robert Southwell (before 1595), Prose
Works (ed. 1828), pp. 16, 21, 22, 28, 63, 70, 74, 77 : A Hundred
Meditatiotts, &c. (ed. 1873), pp. 9, 52, 57, 69, 70, 76, &c. &c. Dekker,
Chettle, and Haughton, Patient Grissil (1603), p. 37 (ed. 1841).
Werest, for wert, occurs in the Geneva Bible, as in JSevelation, 3, 15.
362 ADDITIONS.
The aathorized version has, there and elsewhere, toert. And so has
Bishop Bale, Select Works, p. 292.
For * thou weie \ indicative, see Udall, Apophthtgme* (1542), fol.
18 : John Norden, A Sinfull Mans Solace, fol 28 r, 81 r, 90 v.
r. 80, 1. 2. Connected with the references thereto appended, a
personal matter has arisen, of which it seems expedient that I should
take some notice.
Inquiry having been made as to the age of the expression * different
to \ I sent to The Nation a letter on the subject, which was published
Sept. 5, 1872. I gave numerous quotations for the phrase; and
among them were three under the dates of 1636 and 1668, as I took
pains to particularize.
In The Nation of Sept. 19; 1872, is a letter from Mr. Richard Grant
"White. Therein we read : *' Mr. Hall has shown that the phrase
was used about a hundred and fifty years ago." 1 had, it is true,
pointed out that Steele uses it in The Guardian ; but, as I state above,
I had traced it back much further. Mr. White also writes :
*' Let me add to Mr. IlalFs examples, for use in his forthcoming book,
which cannot fail to be an interesting one, the following singular use,
by a distinguished dramatist of the beginning of the last century, of
* different /ro;n * and ' different to ', in two * contagious ' lines.
** * Aurelia, Sir, you appear very different to me /row what you
were lately.*
" * Truelove. Madam, you appear very indifferent to me to what you
were lately.* Farquhar's Twin Rivah, iii., 3, p. 42, ed. 1703.
** It may have been by mere chance ; but Farquhar made the lady
Bay from, and the gentleman, to J* &c.
Havin^: more to observe on the phrase in question, I sent a second
letter to The Nation, in which it appeared Oct. 31, 1872. And there,
after copying and commenting on Mr. White's remark, *' Mr. Hall has
shown that the phrase was used about a hundred and fifty years ago,** I
mentioned that I had very lately found * different to ' in Sir Arthur
Gorges (1619), in Brathwait (1640), and in Addison, The Spectator^
No. 239.
Regarding Mr. White's offer of material contributory to my book
which the reader now has before him, I wrote :
" * You appear very different to me from what you were lately * ; * yon
appear very indifferent to me to what you were lately '. Here, says Mr.
White, are examples of * different from * and * different to '. But,
surely, indifferent is not diff&rent, or, in the sense which it bears in the
latter of these passages, even the opposite of differetit. There is, here,
just as much a play on words as there is on concision and eireumei'
sion in ^hilippians, iii., 2, 3, or in the Greek original. Nor does it
follow, that, because, for instance, dependent takes on, independent must
be followed by the same preposition. That our ancestors put on and
ADDITIONS.
363
from after independmU I am aware. Besides, what preposition bnt to
could indifferent take, the meaning being * as compared with ' ? We
say * this is ordinary to that/ Bishop Bale, with a keen appreciation
of the odium theologicnm, wrote, before 1563 :
* There is no malyce to the malyce of the clergye '."
Coleridge says, and says very justly : " Talk to a blind man : he
knows he wants the sense of sight, and willingly makes the proper
allowances. But there are certain internal senses, which a man may
want, and yet be wholly ignorant that he wants them.** One of these
senses Mr. "White wants, most undeniably. For the following, from
his pen, appeared in The New-York Times of June 7, 1873: "I re-
cently . . . furnished Dr. Hall with a very peculiar use of * different
to *, somewhat earlier than any with which he seemed to be acquainted,
and directed his attention to my own incidental discussion, nearly
twenty years past, of that phrase^ to the eonsideration of which he has,
since theUy given his whole mindy that is, all of it that he did not put
into his recent exemplification of pedantry, which seemed, at first, a
mischievous attack, but a second perusal showed me that his pages
were
* Tantidem, quasi foeta canes, sine dentibu* latrat : '
and, as I turned to the line, I was reminded, moreover, that, in the
words of the same author, he was of that
* stolidum genus ^acidorum,
Bellipotentes sunt magi* quam sapientipotentes.' "
Mr. White is anxious, evidently, to have it believed, that he supple-
mented the fruit of my researches. Yet bow could I have explained
more clearly than 1 had explained, that he did nothing of the kind ?
AVho does not see, that he did not exemplify ' different to * at all ?
Really, I am compelled to say to him, as somebody once said to some-
body else: " Intelligentiam, noa intellectum,adfero.*' Why, too, has
he brought forward this matter, if not with purpose to make out that
he has Inid me under an obligation, to the increase of his own credit,
by adding to my previous stock of knowledge ?
It is not clear whether Mr. White means that I have given,, with
a reservation, my ** whole mind ** to * different lo *, since Sept., 1872,
or since ** nearly twenty years past." And it little signifies. Only
how was he to know, that, even since Sept., 1872, I had given the
point a single thought ? Vague petulant flings of this sort, besides
being much too cheap tor any person of proper self-respect to indulge
in, must, in the very nature of things, be essentially untruthful, and
betray a most obtuse condition of moral sensibility. For the rest, it
sometimes befals, that a man goes off at score, and, by merely a line
or two, enables the world to take his exact intellectnid measure. Of
this description are the lines which I have italicized.
364 ADDITIONS.
By "recent exemplification of pedantry", Mr. White alludes to my
Recent Exemplificatione of False Philology ^ in which I have anatomized
some samples of his maunderings on words and phrases. The contents
of that work he is pleased, hy a quotation from Ennius, to liken to
the barking of a pregnant toothless bitch ! Fie ! fie ! discomposed
good sir. Why, in what Oliver Goldsmith calls a brachistochrone,
choose to take an ethical header, and befoul yourself spontaneously
with the very garbage of the ungentle } Besides, you know that I
have not written under a pseudonym, but that I am what Steele's
l^hillis, in The Conscious Lovers^ means by ** an odious filthy male
creature". Why, then, rob me of my sex.^ As to doggishness, in
nothing, so far as I can see, am I at all like a canes parturient, or, in-
deed, even like a canes mniden. Furthermore, if you were bent on in-
sinuating that I was canine, but an innocuous specimen of caninity,
you might have had your will, without going out of English, and in
language not only tolerably decorous, but intelligible to your sup-
porters ; as thus :
" Thy toothless jaws should free thee from the fight :
Thou canst but mumble, when thou meanst to bite."
If I can no more concur with Mr. White in taste than I can in
judgment, few, I am sure, will be disposed to dissent from me. Ex-
cept at second hand, I know nothing of the notions of decency which
prevail among respectable people in the chief city of my native State ;
but I have been grossly misinformed, if my lampooner be a favourable
representative of them. In answer to his coarseness, I shall not even
honour him by a search for his parallel. Brunck, to be sure, delighted,
like him, to grovel in the cesspools of fetid epithets ; but Brunck was
a man of learning, and, therefore, is not here to be utilized for pur-
poses of comparison.
As regards Mr. White's second bit of very unrecondite Latin, its
applicability is, equally with that of his first, a riddle. If Mr. White
here understands what he quotes, — which I very much doubt,— he
taxes me, for exposing him, with impolicy. The race of the ^acidee
are reported to have been beef-witted, and mightier in war than in
prudence. Therefore, according to Mr. White, I am one of them ;
and, though I have never been a soldier, he publishes this to the
world, as if he were charging some heavy dragoon, or other professional
man of blood, who had blunderingly beaten his sword and revolver
into steel-pens. But it is all one, most likely, to Mr. White's clients.
Graecum est, non legendum, the old monks used to whisper, with a holy
shudder ; and the illiterate, when they see Latin hurled at one in wrath,
of course assume it to be something very demolishing. The admirers
of Mr. White would, no doubt, at once believe my extinction imminent,
if he were to call me an hypotenuse, or an omithorhynchus. I should
ADDITIONS. 365
hope it was rather late in the day, in New York especially, for any sciolist
to imitate successfully the cosmogony-man of The Vicar of Wakefield,
AH that Mr. White declaredly finds, in my Recent Exemplijicationt
of False Fhilology^ is "pedantry"; and this, agreeably to Dr. John-
son, is "awkward ostentation of needless learning", or "the un-
seasonable ostentation of learning.'* Now, of philologizing 1 know
but one rational method, — accumulating facts, and bringing common-
sense to bear upon them. Mr. White's staple, in his Words and Their
UseSf is made up, chiefly, oi negative assertions and of personal pre-
judices. Against these I array, in my critique, substantial masses
of quotations directly pertinent to expressions which have been im-
pugned, — now to prove the long currency and establishment of one
phrase, now to show that another phrase has the sanction of the most
eminent modem usage, and so on and so on. If, where Mr. White
denies, I had replied by simply affirming, how could it have been
known who was riglit, and who was wrong? There was but one satis-
factory way of meeting him ; and that I took. His rejoinder is ad-
mirable in its simplicity, — bad temper, worse manners, two similes,
and an accusation of pedantry.
If he had betrayed only want of knowledge and inability to reason,
and had stopped there, I should have stopped with indicating that
want and that inability. But he did not stop there. To say ho more
of his ignorance, and of his impotence of logic, I encountered, in his
book, to a degree which I never saw surpassed in any second book,
arrogance of attitude, self-opinionative dogmatism, and the most in-
tolerant disdain of all who differ from himself; and on these peculiar-
ities, over and above confuting his philologastry, I bestowed the
designations which such things, especially when aggravated by com-
bination, inevitably invite. A sense of fit characterization has led me,
I acknowledge, to employ divers dyslogistic metaphors, in application
to varying exhibitions of his deplorable deficiency of scholarship, and
of himself, as an implied "glass of fashion", and type of high-class
aesthetic intuition. In every case, however, I have studied appro-
priateness and just proportion. I would urge, with Hobbes : " I am
not so inhuman as not to pardon dulness or madness : they are not
voluntary faults. But, when men adventure, voluntarily, to talk of
that they understand not, censoriously and scorafully, I may tell them
of it " ; and with Bentley : " There 's nothing so nauseous and pro-
voking as a superficial ostentation of learning, while profound ignor-
ance lies at the bottom."
Of the style of retort which Mr. White accounts becoming, I have
said enough. And the same style, in all its essentials, is that of his
half-educated and ill-bred satellites. My facts, arguments, and con-
clusions, both he and they, as unmistakeably as if they categorically
avowed it, recognize to be absolutely impregnable; and, in unwise
366 ADDITIONS.
alternatire to tileiice, they slaice me with hap^hasard hillingsgate.
It is idle for them to hope, that their affecting to make light account
of me will not he interpreted hy others, and rightly, as a clutch-
ing at the last straw of despair. Genuine contempt is anything rather
than clamorous; hiit the vulgar, when alarmed and irritated, invariably
seek relief in a free secretion of scurrility. It is not thus that what I
have called false philology can be made out to be true.
P. 80, note 1. * Different to ' is used by Mrs. Lennox, in TheFemaU
Quixote (1752), Vol. 1, p. 67 (ed. 1820).
P. 82, note 2. For "disagree /row**, also see The French Aeade-
mie, Part 1 (ed. 1589), p. 9J : UakewiW, Ah Apoloffiey &c. (ed. 1630),
p. 192.
P. 88, note 1. Other old instances of respect, for 'relation*,
* reference *, here follow.
** Bondemenne are, in respecte and comparison, the feete* of their
maistcrs, & these as the heddes of the servauntes.'* Udall, Apoph-
thegtnes, &c. (1542), fol. 148 r and v. Also see fol. 59 r.
** Seven are they named here, in a universal respect both of the times,
persons, places, and perverse doctrines of the whole world." Bishop
Bale, Select Works (1849), p. 471.
** But, in this canon, hee disclaimes any jurisdiction to judge of titles,
which those Popes tooke to themselves, who excommunicated our late
Queeiie (if l^arsons say true, that they had respect to the injustice of
her title, by reason of a statute), and all those Popes must doe, which
shall doe any act which mi«(ht make this oath unlawfull to you.*' Dr.
Donne, Pseudo-martyr (1610), pp. 309, 310.
P. 107, note 3. Both frugality and temperance were used by Udall
in 1542. See, for these words, his Apophthegnies, &c., fol. 90, 128,
189, 263, and fol. 128.
P. 108, 1. 3. Udall, in his Apophthegmes^ &c. (1542), plainly in-
dicates that several of his words were, in his day, uncommon. Of
pedagogue he gives, before using it, a long explanation. Fol. 182,
183. ''^Parasites wer called suche smellefeastes as would seeke to bee
free geastes at riche mennes tables." Fol. 199. "A clime is a region
or coste of a countree." Fol. 216. Prorogation is explained by " a
longer tyme in his dictature." Fol. 278. Stratagems are defined as
" the sleightes and policies of warre." Fol. 279. Geography is " the
descripcion of the yearth " ; and fountains are ** hedsprynges."
Fol. 285.
In one case, Udall glosses a word which had been ventured long
before his time. *' An epitaphie is the writyng that is sette on dedde
munnes toutnbes or graves, in memoiie or commendacion of the parties
there buiried." Fol. 196, 197. For epitaji, see Capgrave's Chronicle,
p. 125; for epitaff^ Lydgate's Minor Poems (ed. 1840), p. 93.
P 109, 1. 2.and note 1. Diction, with Sir Philip Sidney, has the
ADDITIONS. 367
sense it now bears. Donne, in making it mean * word ', — a classical
acceptation of dictiOy — had been anticipated. Udall, in his Apoph-
thegmea (1542), employs three synonyms of ' word ', one of which is
vocable. The others are diction, fol. 121, 129, 200, 241, 243, 245 ;
and voice, fol. 112, 121, 125, 164.
P. Ill, 1. 12. Udall used contaminate, the verb. See bis Apoph-
thegmee, &c. (1542), " The Preface of Erasmus.*'
P. 111. In the comedy of Patient Grissil, by Dekker, Chettle, and
Haughton, published in 1603, Emulo exemplifies what is called ** the
gallimaufry of language *% by many words such as the substantives
eollocution, delinquiahinent, disconsolation, impriaion, eynteresie, and the
verbs conglutinate, imperish, oblivionize, recuperate, vapulate, vulnerate.
These, doubtless, were among the affectations of the time. Incoft-
gruent, ventured some generations before, was then still strange, and,
in fact, never fuund wide acceptation. Adulatory, too, was looked on
as outlandish ; and it is not much more than a centuiy since it really
became English.
P. 122, note 2. Dr. Eichardson quotes, for the verb neuter smoulder,
Gascoigne and Dryden, alsu.
P. 132, foot. Devilry is used by Bishop Bale, Select TForke (1849),
p. 354.
P. 133, notes, 11. 9, 10. I should have written : Dr. Kichardson
gives, for modern times, the participial adjective humiliating, only.
P. 141,1. 13. I may mention that the word adjectival was used
long before Dr. Latham's day, as by William Taylor. See The
Monthly Review, Vol. 24 (1797), p. 558: The Monthly Magazine,
Vol. 12 (1801), p. 98. And Bentham has it.
P. 155, note 3. Livelehood, that is to say, our modem livelihood, is
used by Udall, Apophthegmea (1542), fol. 322.
P. 156, note 1. Since this note was printed, I have found, that, in
the Amsterdam edition of The Doctrine and Diacipline of Divorce,
published in 1698, Milton is made to write help meet, in Book 1, Ch.
2. In the editions of 1738 and 1753, the reading is help-meet.
For this information I am indebted to a very intelligent, critical, and
kind friend, Mr. Frederic Pincott, who has often laid me under
obligation by assistance he has rendered me in my philological re-
searches.
P. 162, notes, 11. 1 — 3. I am aware that forms like w/a«*, for enfanta,
were not first used in modern times. Kor particulars, see M. Genin,
R4ertationa Philologiquea, Vol. 1, pp. 354—368.
P. 162, note 1. BaatiU, for * dungeon', is very old English. See
Lydgate, Minor Poema (ed. 1840), p. 207 {bis).
P. 173, 1. 14. Suburb tan is used by William Rowley, A Search for
Money (1609), p. 37 (ed. 1840).
P. 180, note 4. Like aymbology are aymbolatry and aymbolatroua.
368 ADDITIONS.
used by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, in The Origin and Development nf
Jteliffioua Belief (e«l 1871), Vol. 1, p. 185. Among other monstrous
formations occurring in the same volume, are the following. Heliatic^
p. 147. Helativibility, 'p. 210. Ideolatry, ^, 187. Ideographic, •^.
263. Anthropomorphize, p. 239. Hypostatize, p. 394.
P. 211, note 2. Altitudes, for * heroics', is used by Mrs. Lennox*
The Female Quixote (1762), Vol. 1, p. 166 (ed. 1820).
P. 219, 1. 7. Can carriwitchet be a corruption oi colijithet ?
P. 226, note 3. Dispense, substantive, once meant 'expense' ; and
the verb dispendy * expend'. See Lydgate, Minor Poems (ed. 1840),
pp. 166, 167, 196, 208, and p. 210. The latter is used by so late a
writer as Hakewill. See his An Apologie, &c. (ed. 1630), p. 362.
P. 240, note 8. Add the three following illustrative extracts :
" The bread and the wine were left us for a sacramental communion,
or a mutual participation of the inestimable benefits of his most pre-
cious death and blood- sheddi ng. " Mrs. Anne Askewe (1646?), in
Bishop Bale's Select Works, p. 196.
** Ye will, paraventure, say, it is Christ's body. But, truly, that is
all false. For thereof is no mutual participation, where one eateth up
all." Bishop Bale, Select Works, p. 627.
" Numbring up the holy dayes, hee concludes, at last, that neither
any processe hold, nor sentence bee in force, pronounced on any of those
dayes, though both parts mutually should consent unto it." . Heylin,
The History of tJie Sabbath (ed. 1636), Book 2, p. 159.
P. 264, note 3. Add : " So would he woundrefuU pacientely take
merie bourdyng, — yea, some tymes beeyng with the largest and over
plainly, — either begonne, orels reversed backe again upon hyra."
Udall, Apophthegmes (1542), fol. 243 v.
" The same Julia begoonne, somewhat with the soonest, to have
whyteheares in hir hedde." Id., ibid., fol. 252 v.
Also see Sir Philip Sidney, Arcadia (ed. 1613), p. 154.
P. 280, 1. 16. The following is from Lydgate :
" Cheese we the roosys, cast away the thorn,
Criste boute us alle with his precious bloode :
To that he bouhte us lat no thyng be lorn ;
For our redempcioun he staif upon the rood."
Minor Foans (ed. 1840), p. 149.
P. 288, note 5. The substantive democratic was used, I find, in
1681, in the Preface to Heylin's De Jure Paritatis Episcopoi'um, by
the Rev. George Vernon. Robert Southwell has domesticals for do-
mestics. See A Hundred Meditations, &c. (ed. 1873), p. 167.
P. 304, note 4. Centenary, for * aggregate of a hundred ', is used
by Heylin, The History of the Sabbath (ed. 1636), Book 1, p. 23.
INDEX OF AUTHORS, etc.
*«* The letter f ., where attached to the number of a page, U intended
to denote the pages immediately following.
Abbot, Archbishop, 74.
Abbott, Dr. E. A., 265, 363.
Addison, Joseph, 9, 42, 66, 62, 66,
80. 82, 91, 117, 119, 120, 126,
148, 174, 190, 198, 231, 233,
234, 250, 256, 292, 294, 367,
362.
Addison and Steele, 233.
Aleman, 112.
Alford, Dean, 74,- 77, 78, 84, 87.
Andrewes, Bishop, 82, 92, 242.
Aquinas, Thomas, 144.
Anstarchus, 143.
Arnold, Mr. Matthew, 82, 234,
306, 330, 331.
Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 63, 191, 300,
307, 328.
Ascham, Hoger, 47, 67, 93, 161,
176, 362, 353, 366, 369.
Ash well, Rev. George, 213.
Askewe, Mrs. Anne, 368.
Augustine, St., 129.
Bacon (Lord Verulam), Francis,
14, 36, 43, 86, 99, 266, 307.
Bailey, Nathaniel, 116.
Bailey, Mr. Samuel, 44, 66, 72.
Baker, Robert, 80,211.
Baker, Rey. Thomas, 43.
Bale, Bishop, 40, 76, 146, 223,
336, 362, 363, 361, 362, 363,
366, 367, 368.
Baring-Gould, Rev. 8., 330, 368.
Barlow, Joel, 297.
Barrow, Dr. Isaac, 43, 68, 66, 83,
89, 91, 92, 160, 180, 186, 189,
206, 272, 276, 284, 286.
Barry, Spranger, 133.
Bartlett, Mr. J. R., 80.
Baxter, Rev. Richard, 131.
Beattie, Dr., 103, f., 123.
Beaumont and Fletcher, 189.
Becher, William, 283.
Beckford, William, 63, 106, 226,
260, 271, 331, 383, 348.
Bentham, Jeremy, 19, 20, 31, 169,
186, 228, 270, 283, 297, 309,
317, 326, 367.
Bentley, Dr. Richard, 8, 9, 33, 82,
90, 96, 116, f., 132, 137, 156,
180, 189, 217, 229, 241, 266,
261, 306, 860, 366.
Berkeley, Bishop, 281.
Berkeley, Mr., 266.
Bernard, Rev. Richard, 224, 272.
Bickerstaffe, Isaac, 211, 228, 239,
240, 260, 256.
Bickerstaffe and Foote, 263, 268.
Blackley, Rev. W. L., 67, 77, 78,
79, 172, 181, 296.
Blackstone, Sir William, 118, 133.
Blackwell, Dr. Thomas, 121.
Bolingbroke, Lord, 178, 318.
Bolton, Edmund, 109, 132.
Booth, Mr. David, 337.
Boucher, Rev. Jonathim, 47, 128,
169, 215.
Bowditch, Mr. N. I., 273.
Boyle, Hon. Charles, 116, 117,
118, 119.
Boyle, Hon. Robert, 43, 122.
Brachet, M. A., 66.
Bradshaigh, Lady, 63.
Brathwait, Richard, 42, 46, 47, 80,
89, 93, 133, 173, 180, 187, 910,
24
INDEX OF AUTH0H3, ETC
226, 232, 2«, 270. 272, 362.
Bntluid, Rer. John, 32S.
Brewer, Mr. F\A P., 352.
Bront^ Uiss Cluriotte, 81, 1S4.
Brooke, Henry, 3fi, 43. 60, 62,
160, 206, 210, 211. 213, 214,
220, 221, 224, 230, 231, 235,
237, 239, 244, 246, 2i7, 248,
249, 262. 2S3, 2r,i. jati, 269,
SS, 300, 318.
263,!
d, 46
128,
191,
287.
Brown
ng, Hr. Bobert
161.
Bruce,
Dr. John,
191.
Branck
R. F. P,
364.
BockinBham, Duk
eof.
160.
Bull, liishnp, 146
Balwe
Mr. E. L
(LordLytton),
72.
Bnrgny, M. 0. F
66.
BurL,
Edmund, 43, 52, 69
131,
132,
184, 208,
212,
219,
222,
224,
225
288,
239,
241
244,
264,
257
260.
262
266
276,
282,
283
284,
285
287
288,
294,
296
298.
299,
305
306,
317.
Bnmitby. Sit Wilaon, B.. & Co.
Bumey. MiM France* (Madame
D'Arblay), 53, 80, 82. 83, 121,
126, 128. 172, 191, 208, 210,
216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 225,
227, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238,
242, 243, 244, 249, 253, 280,
261, 262, 264, 267, 288, 271,
340.
Burtho^e, Dr. Richard, 76, 118,
186.
Butler. He». Charlee, 366.
Byron, Lord, 28, 44, 304,
Csesar, Julius. 34.
CailliSre, M., 288.
Cambrii^e, E, 0., 80, 121, 156,
Camden, Lord. 207.
Camden, William, 6, 7, 61, 107,
133, 187, 190.
Campe, J. H., 99.
, Campion, Thomas, 186.
'Canning, George. 260, 266.
CapgiaTe, 46. 276, 368, 366.
C»rey, Henry, 61.
CarleU, Lodowick, 172, 211, 229.
CarlyltsMr.ThonlM, 19, 132, 161,
184, 189, 331.
Carter, Hiss Elizabeth, 12. 52, 56,
122, 123, 125, 176, 187, 207,
208, 209, 215, 217, 219, 222,
223, 228, 231, 238, 239, 24S,
267, 302.
Casaubon, Dr. Merie, 166.
CaalalioD, Sebastian, 112.
Catullus, 14, 70, 327.
Centlirre, Mre. Sueanna, 156, 190,
228, 240, 245, 262.
CerranCee, 28.
ChslmerB, Dr. Thomas, 48.
Chapman, Dr. Geoi^e. 64, 187.
Chaucer. 4, 9, 11, 67, 64, 66, 123,
196, 368.
Cheke, Sir John, 3, 4, 278.
Chesterfield, Lord, 125, 144, tS9,
221. 288.
Chettle, Henrie. 60, 1 11, 174, 186,
20S, 250, 259, 264, 314, 361,
367.
Chilliugworth, Ber. William, 68.
Gibber, CoUey, 166, 176, 253, 259.
Cibbfir, Mrs. 8. M., 63.
Gibber, Tbeophilua, 80, 230.
Giceto, 2, 8, 70, 168, 186, 278.
Clarendon, Lord, 65. 326.
Clark, Mr. Bracy, 176.
Clinton, Mr. H. F., 173.
Clive, His. Gatberine. 272.
Glough, Mr. A. H., SI.
Gobbe, HissF. P., 180.
Cobbett, William, 18, 138, 139.
Cockerani, Henry, 131, 138, 298.
Coghan, Dr. Thomas, 361.
Gole, Rev. Thomas, 318.
Colehrooke, Mr. H. T., 283, 310.
Coleridge, 8. T., 21, 63, 68, 70,
n, f, 82, 85, 106, 106, 121,
130, 132, 133, 162. 1S7, 168,
171, 178, 183, 184, 194, 197,
213, 256, 261, 269, 283, 285,
286, 289, 306, 306, 314, 315,
317, 323, 327, 329, 336, 363.
Collier, Rev. Jeremy, 65, 61, 66,
'.19, 128, 160, 168, 180, 189,
111,223,226,236,264,268.
Caiman, George, 36, 63, 62, 63,
117, 124, 128, 166, 206, 207,
INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC,
208, 211, 212, 216, 217,
219, 220, 221, 223, 224, 22a,
227, 228, 230, 231, 236, ~—
238, 239. 2*1. 2«, 248, 2*9,
251, 252, 256, 257. 258, 263.
266, 267, 269, 271, 312, 318,
342.
Colman and Garrick, 217.
Colmaa aad ThnrnMn. 10, 80, 82,
156, 206, 211, 213, 217, 262,
238, 261.
Corte, Earl of, 241.
Cotlington, Lord Francis, 132.
Cuusin, M, Victor, 303.
Cowtll, Dr. John, 90.
Cowley, AbrahaiD, 8, 14, 43, 180,
183, 247.
Cowlejr, Mr>. Hannah, 208, 218,
231, 233, 238, 250, 271, 273.
Cowper. William, S3, 65, 62, 74,
82, Oo. 9B, 108, , 124, 127,
139, I4il, 176, 181, 190, 205,
206, 207, 208, '209, 210, 213,
214, 216, S16, 217, 219, 220,
223, 227, 228, 233, 238, 240,
243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 261,
263, 236, 269, 2S7. 268, 269,
283, 299, 301,312.
Creaay, Sir Edward, 17, 141.
Cromwell, 01i«er, 119.
Cudworth, Dr. Ralph, 128,
Cumberland, Richard, 148. 207,
208, 209, 217, 228, 233. 234,
236, 239, 241, 244, 255, 257,
259, 260, 263, 271, 306.
Dacrea, Edward, 69, 82.
Uasent, Dr. G. W., 65,
D'Arenant, Bir William, 229.
Datis, Bir John, 331.
De Foe, 82, 123, 128, 160, 168,
190, 206. 216, 228, 236, 266,
296, 337.
Dekker, Thomaa, 79, 112, 173,
189, 211, 217, 223, 229, 24(
261, 272, 332.
Deklcfr. Chettle, and Hanghtoi
80, 260, 269, 361, 367.
De Quince]', Mr. Thomaa, 29, SI
63. 69, 82, 83, 84, 106, 130,
140, 168, 171, 174, 176, 180.
183, 184, 186, 191, 194, 269,
276, 283, 285, 292, 298, 300,
301, 302, 304, 306, 307, 317,
328.
Derham, Dr. W., 160.
De Vera, Prof. M. S., 220, 234.
Dihdin. Charles, 217, 240, 253,
254.
Dibdin. Thomaa, 128, 230, 233,
241.
Dickens, Mr. Charles, 82, 242,
267. 331.
Disraeli, Mr. B., 242.
D'laraeU, Mr. Isaac, 43, 44, 120,
296.
Donne, Dr., 42. 44, 88, 109, 132,
133, 144, 145, 159, 181, 186,
188,258, 286, 366. 367.
Douce, Francis. 133.
Dojle, Sir F. U., 161.
Dryden, 10, 11. 14, 21, 120, 123,
144, 149, 187, 190, 217, 229,
263, 281, 293, 367.
Ducange, 64. 144.
Dumaat, M. P. G. de, 202.
D«pr6, William, 100, 129. 201.
Dyce, Rey. A., 137.
Earle, Rer. John, 322.
Eastwood. Mr. J., 363.
Eaton, iter. John, 46, 87, 90, 93,
189.
Echjin, Ladj, 62.
Edeb, Richarde, 108, 109.
Edwards. Thomaa, 183. 261.
Elyot, Sir Thomas. 46. 67, 79, 88,
93, 107, 108. 109, 122, 137,
167, 188, 306, 352.
EnnlDB, 15, 364.
Eatiennc, Henri, 4, 16, SO.
Etherege, Sir George, 218.
Eusden, Rev. Lawrence, 101.
Evelyn, John, 287.
Fanshawe, Sir liichard, 188.
Farquhar. George, 362.
Feltliam. Owen. 21, 42, 62, 74, 75,
88, 242, 286.
Fielding, Henry, 161, 190, 246.
Fish, Simon, 3S2.
Fieke, Mr. John. 46, 47.
Fleckno, Bct. Richard, 42, 120.
372
INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC.
Fletcher, John, '271.
Florio, John, 178, 363.
Foote, Samuel, 67, 80, 124, 166,
173, 211, 217, 218, 219, 220,
221, 223, 228, 230, 231, 232,
233, 236, 237, 238, 239, 244,
246, 246, 247, 248, 260, 261,
262, 263, 266, 267, 268, 261,
263, 313, 317.
Foster, Rev. John, 292.
Fowler, Prof. W. C, 346.
Fox, C. J., 21, 331.
Fox, John, 287.
Franck, Richard, 93, 111, 118,
167, 174, 236, 239.
Franklin, Benjamin, 286, 286.
Freeman, Dr. E. A., 296, 299,
300, 330.
Frere, John, 266.
Fuller, Dr. Thomas, 42, 60, 55,
69, 76, 113, 116, 168, 169, 173,
176, 187, 188, 207, 216, 229,
232, 241, 264, 268, 283, 286,
332, 337, 361.
Gainsford, Thomas, 42, 117.
Gait, John, 320.
Garrick, David, 121, 217, 219,
233, 238, 246, 249, 264, 268.
Gascoigne, 367.
Gataker, Eev. Thomas, 68, 90,
146, 241, 242, 266.
Gaule, Rev. John, 26, 38, 44, 75,
81, 82, 117, 131, 132, 133, 167,
179; 186, 266, 286, 287.
Gay, John, 61, 126, 210, 222,
231, 246, 269.
Gellius, Aulus, 34.
Genin, M. F., 129, 367.
Gibbs, Prof. J. W., 337.
Gibbon, Edmund, 63, 55, 66, 83,
117, 118, 168, 202, 208, 222,
264, 317.
Gladstone, Mr. W, E., 298, 300,
301, 307, 308.
Glanvill, Rev. Joseph, 31, 42,
80, 82, 89, 117, 144, 160, 16*8,
183, 189, 211, 229, 268, 284,
286.
Godwin, William, 8, 10, 11, 69,
82, 83, 121, 160, 164, 186, 207,
214, 216, 223, 226, 246, 264,
271, 287, 291, 296, 300, 306.
Godwin, Mrs., 126, 249, 262.
Goethe, 164.
Goldsmith, Dr. Oliver, 62, 190,
197, 207, 208, 210. 212, 213,
218, 219, 220, 226, 227, 228,
231, 237, 238, 240, 249, 251,
263, 260, 262, 266, 267, 269,
271, 272, 306, 326, 364.
Gorges, Sir Arthur, 80, 93, 117,
362.
Gosson, Rev. Stephen, 67.
Gower, 46, 64.
Graves, Rev. Richard, 63, 82, 122,
123, 178, 210, 219, 223, 234,
236, 237, 239, 240, 243, 246,
247, 267, 262, 266, 268, 269,
337.
Gray, Thomas, 42, 62, 67, 70,
103, 123, 127, 148, 162, 176,
207, 208, 210, 220, 221, 228,
246, 247, 249, 260, 262, 326.
Greene, Robert, 79.
Grenville fWilliam Wyndham),
Lord, 70, 86.
Grimstone, Viscount, 229, 247,
263.
Grote, Professor John, 168.
Grove, Rev. Henry, 216.
Guizot, M., 163.
GumhilL Rev. James, 80.
Hakewill, Dr. George, 79, 232,
304, 366, 368.
Hakluyt, Rev. Richard, 212.
Hall, Kishop, 66, 74.
Hall, Rev. T. D., 322.
Hallam, Henry, 83, 101, 132, 297.
Halle, Edward, 128.
Halle, Dr. John, 68, 314.
Hallifax, Bishop, 123, 227, 235,
310, 316.
Hare, Archdeacon, 102, 139, 316.
Harington, Sir John, 109, 143.
Harris, James, 239, 268, 266, 270,
361.
Harrison, Mr. M., 337.
Harvey, Gabriell, 79, 109, 110,
111. 112, 133, 190, 366.
Haughton, William, 80, 260, 269,
361, 367.
Hawkesworth, Dr. John, 148, 206,
209, 246.
Hawkins, Sir John, 119, 332.
INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC.
373
Hawthorne, Mr. N., 173. i
Hay ward, James, 58, 68, 80, 133,
156, 172, 174. 187.
Haywarde, Sir John, 88, 167, 264,
271.
Hazlitt, WUliam. 69, 102, 218,
306.
Heber, Bishop, 283, 307.
Helps, Sir Arthur, 17.
Herbert, Sir Thomas, 128.
Hesketh, Lady, 80.
Heylin, Dr. Peter, 41,44, 93, 111,
112, 113, 114. 115, 118, 137,
186, 190, 216, 234, 272, 286,
286, 368.
Heywood, Thomas, 190.
Hieron, Key. Samuel, 46, 108,
148, 156.
Hill, Aaron, 121, 176, 216, 268.
Hoadly, Dr. John, 124, 273.
Hobbes, Thomas, 19, 31, 89, 288,
356, 366.
Hoby, Sir Thomas, 4.
Hodges, Richard, 160, 360, 361.
Hodgson, Dr. Shadworth H., 336.
Holinshed, Raphael, 46, 46, 122.
Holland, Dr. Philemon, 69, 113,
165, 167, 187, 212, 214, 266,
286, 307.
Hooker, Rev. Richard, 36, 116.
Hope, Mr. A. J. B. B., 318.
Horace, 70, 160, 198.
Home, Bishop, 67, 211.
Homeck, Dr. Anthony, 247, 361.
Hotten, Mr. J. C, 130.
Howell, James, 40, 42, 67, 63, 76,
80, 157, 167, 173, 232, 304,
313.
Hughes, John, 184.
Hughes, Mr. Thomas, 81.
Hu^o Carrensis, 60.
Hugo, M. Victor, 163.
Hurd, Bishop, 62, 190, 235, 262,
266.
Hutcheson, Dr. Francis, 133.
Huxley, Prof. T. H., 296, 304,
330.
Inch bald, Mrs. Elizabeth, 207,
208, 214, 217, 228, 230, 231,
232, 243, 249, 265, 269.
James, Dr. Thomas, 132, 186, 223,
272.
Janris, Charles, 323, 324.
Jeffries, Miss, 260.
Jephson, Robert, 128, 233, 263.
Jewell, Bishop, 122, 331.
Jodrell, Mr. R. P., 156, 186.
Johnson, Charles, 90, 160, 240,
246, 247, 248,253, 273, 305,
340.
Johnson, Richard, 79.
Johnson, Dr. Samuel, 2, 3, 8, 9,
10, 11, 15, 17, 22, 36, 40, 42,
43, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52r, 61, 62,
66, 70, 76, 77, 79, 88, 90, 93,
96, 101, 103, 120, 121, 123,
124, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132,
133, 136, 136, 139, 140, 143,
144, 148, 160, 166, 168, 172,
177, 184, 188, 190, 192, 196,
198, f., 207, 208, 215, 216,
217, 218, 222, 223, 225, 236,
236, 240, 243, 244, 246, 251,
266, 268, 263, 269, 270, 276,
281, 286, 286, 287, 289, 294,
296, 303, 304, 316, 317, 318,
319, 333, 337, 366.
Jones, Edward, 117.
Jones, Sir William, 55, 124, 225,
236, 276.
Jones, Rev. William, 80, 90, 226,
234, 262, 286, 287, 318.
Jonson, Ben, 14, 47, 79, 106, 167,
161, 174, 187, 189, 166, 363,
354, 366, 367.
Jordan, Thomas, 10.
Kelly, Hugh, 234, 263.
Eenney, James, 230, 261, 263,
261.
Eilmore, Bishop of, 211.
Kingsley, Rev. Charles, 132, 166,
187, 194, 213, 230, 262, 300,
331
Knight, R. P., 231, 260.
Knighte, William, 358, 359.
Kuster, Dr. Ludolph, 33.
La Bruydre, 163.
Lactantius, 18.
La Fontaine, 100.
Lamb, Charles, 46, 68, 69, 103,
121, 166, 167. 191, 283, 297,
313, 323, 327, 329.
Landor, W. S., 13, 14, 16, 17, 29,
41, 46, 64, 67, 69, 60, 61, 62,
374
INDEX OF AUTHORS, ETC.
67, 69, 71, 82. 83, 103, 105, 117,
183, 184, 191, 192, 206, 265,
267, 270, 286, 288, 290, 298,
302, 323, 327, 329, 331, 343.
Lansdowne, Lord, 236.
Lansdowne, Marquis of, 296.
Larchey, M. Loredan, 288.
Latham, Dr. R. G., 46, 124, 132,
133, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144,
319, 367.
Latimer, Bishop, 47, 173, 188.
Laveaux, M. J. C, 13, 129.
Lavington, Bishop, 68, 66, 167,
220, 247, 261.
Lawrence, Rev. Matthew, 72, 90.
Lee, Professor S., 173.
Lempriere, N., 94.
Lennox, Mrs. Charlotte, 366, 368.
L' Estrange, Hamon, 41, 44, 47,
90, 91, 114, 116,117, 118,167,
189, 224, 241, 272, 353, 356.
L'Estrange, Sir Roger, 223.
Lewis, Matthew G., 325.
Leycester, Mr., 261.
Lind, John, 119.
Lithgow, William, 46, 134, 156,
167.
Littre, M. E., 64.
Lloyd, Bishop, 121.
Lloyd, Charles, 81, 83.
Lloyd, Robert, 228.
Lockhart, J. G., 184.
Longfellow, Prof. H. W., 131.
Lowell, Mr. J. R., 193.
Lowth, Bishop, 62, 77, 79, 90,
119, 207, 210, 213, 220, 224,
227, 234, 235, 236, 239, 246,
251, 262, 263, 266, 270, 357.
Lydgate, 352. 366, 358, 359. 360,
366, 367, 368.
Lyly, John, 79, 186, 356.
Lyttelton, Lord, 228.
Lytton, Lord, 99, f., 139, 207,
214, 262, 298.
Mabbe, James, 46, 47, 60, 63, 68,
80,90, 112, 162, 180, 186, 188,
218, 232, 243, 247, 250, 254,
264, 283, 313, 364.
Macaulay, Lord, 13, 17, 54, 62,
69, 84, 129,130, 141,142,160,
156, 171, 213, 216, 248, 264,
283, 285, 289, 292, 293, 300,
303, 306, 307, 317, 319, 331.
Macaulay, Mrs. C, 186.
Mackintosh, Sir James, 21, 43.
Macklin, Charles, 201, 208, 263.
Macrobius, 34, 64.
Maillard, Olivier, 60.
Maitland, Dr. S. R., 313.
M alone, Edmond, 285.
Mandeville, Dr. Bernard de, 68,
160. 234.
Mandeville, Sir John, 146.
Marsh, Mr. G. P., 46, 46, 49, f.,
77, f., 198, 262, 273, 324, 332,
337, 338, 346, 348, 349, 352,
353, 365.
Martial, 128.
Martyn, Rev. Henry, 296.
Mason, Rev. William, 212, 270.
Massinger, 173, 263, 303.
Mathias, T. J., 105, 248, 317.
Mede, Rev. Joseph, 255, 268.
Manage, 64.
Menander, 25.
Mendoza, D. H. de, 42.
Middleton, Dr. Conyers, 294.
Mill, James, 313.
Mill, Mr. J. S.,83, 181, 296, 304,
320.
Milman, Dean, 18, 304.
Milton, 14, 42, 70, 72, 82, 89,
100, 105, 114, 119, 133, 147,
149, 150, 156, 157, 160, 161,
173, 185, 187, 190, 212, 218,
232, 265, 284, 285, 289, 293,
34.3, 367.
Monboddo, Lord, 30.
Monmouth (Henry Gary), Earl of,
70, 75. 132, 139, 160, 162, 167,
174, 190, 221, 307, 356.
Monro, Rev. T., 233.
Montagu, Lady Mary W.. 118.
Moore, Edward, 52, 125, 156, 216,
285.
More, Miss Hannah, 208, 225,
271.
More, Dr. Henry, 42, 43, 82, 89,
116, 128, 132, 158, 166, 167,
175, 180, 284, 288.
More. Sir Thomas, 58, 109, 114,
122, 132, 190, 229, 352, 361.
Morris, Dr. Richard, 79, 322,
353.
X
^V INDEX OP ATTTHORS, ETC. 375 M
H Mndeiii. P. A,, -15.
Pullenham. George. 5, 47, 59, 61 ,
^B Mtiltt-r, Piol'. MaximiUut, 54,
74,75,79.82.93.107,108,109,
B
110, 112, 179, 1B3, 188, 255,
H UniM, tiisB, 213.
273, 306, 353.
^H Murpbf, Anhiir. 129, 208, 210,
Pjcriift, Re». J..81.
^H 217, 2le, 233, 2.14, 247, 248,
Pylches, Mr. John, 127.
^M 249, 25U, 238, 239. 2U3.
QuiQliJian, 41.
^H Narea. Arcfadeauon, 272.
Hahelais. 21, 100, 117.
H Niuh, Thamaa. 21, 61, 79, 110,
H 112, 131, 132, 133, 187. 2G1,
Re»de, Mr. Chwlea. 25, 26, 82,
H 2«5, 2B6, 312.
217.230, 262,3.31,
H Newmnn, Dr. J, H.. IG. 17. 69,
Reeve, Hks Clara, 226, 249.
^M 82, 83, 144. 156. 177, 178, 191,
Reynolds. Sir Joahua, 214, 222,
^M 2b2, 26.1, 2GS, -267, 28-3, 291.
236,241.255,261,271,306.
^M 292, 29t>, 302, 304, 312, 329,
■ 331, 342.
72. 73, 80, 117. 122, 128. 132,
^H Newton, Rev. John, 48, 296.
133, 134, 144, 145, 287, 319,
^H Nonlon. John, 139, IHS, 3m, 362.
361. 367.
^H Nurfolk, Duke of, 358.
H N»tt, Dt. John, 24S. 256. 261.
BichardBon, Samuel, 51, 54, 66,
H O'BTien, Mr. Henry, 167.
72,80, 82,120,123, 125,134,
H 0-K»ffc, John, 211, 21S, 22f),
161. 167, 168, 195, SID, 211,
^M 23U, 237, 243, 244, 248, 2til,
214, 215, 217, 223, 223. 226,
■
227. 230, 231, 233, 234, 236,
^ OLwbv. 189. 231.
239, 2411, 248, 249, 250, 251,
i 0<fi.rd. Earl of, 79.
254. 256, 258, 259, 260. 261,
Pace, H«v. Richard, 137.
262, 271, 273. 285. 286, 287,
Paley, Archdeacon. B3, 191. 2IG.
297. 298, 300, 320, 336.
248, 260, 267, 283, 287, 3(17,
Riche, Bainabe, 47, 50, 79, 86,
^ 312.
.107,267,332.
K Parr. Dr. Samuel. 3S. 43, 148.
Richelet. C. P.. 232.
^B Peai»on. Bishop, 89.
Hcibetd of Gloucealer, 358.
^H Pecuuk. Blahup, 43.
RobiuBon. Mr. H. C, 331.
H Philon, Frederic. 249, 2.-i7. 260.
"SS "■"■•■"• ''■'"■
Pilkington, Mrs, M.. 223.
Plautiu, 13, 159.
Roger. Dr. P. M.. 33.
PonlMU.. 1.
iiokeby. Lord, 318.
Pope, Alexander, 11, 40, 149,
Roquelori, M. J. B. B., 65.
^— 19U. 2 ill.
Kuscammon, Earl of. 3.
H, PoT<«l, Iliuhard, 67, 253, 267.
Rosin i, Sign. Q.. 83.
^H
Rowlands, Samuel, 40, 93, 110,
^m Porler, Heury, 79, I9U, 249, 271.
112.271.
^H Prealun, Lord, 68, 265.
Rowley, Williani. 367.
H Pri<:e. 8ir U*ed>le. 53. »2, I2S.
RuBkiu, Mr. John, 28,29, 3-1, 64,
^M 126, ItiU, 191, 207, 222, 224,
156, 176, 181. 191, 201. 216,
■ 2ie,25tt.
259,2X3,315,330. •
^M Prinilev. Dr. JMeph. 1 1 . 75. 104,
^B 122. 212, 245, 246. 257, 264,
Bust, Bishop. 89.
S, Victor. Hugo da, 144,
^m
^M Prynne. Wtllum, 132.
89,93,211.285,
^H Pnllcr. Dr. TiiDOLhy, 47, 75, 112.
ScoH, Sir Waller, 21. 28. 65, 132,
^K Pu*ey,Dt.E. B.,296.
133, 202, 283, 284, 307.
57fl INDEX OP AUTHOBS, ETC.
Seneca, 6. Steme, Rev. Ltuwnce, 43, 66,
Serign^, Madame de, 326. 16S, 2(18. 213, 217. 221, 223,
Shakesptare, 24, 42. 47, 70, 79, 228, 230. 232. 231. 240, 241,
88, 92, 93. 105, 106, 1(J9. 123, 243, 245, 257, 259, 262, 287,
125, 14), 160, 168, 173, 176, 357.
189, 22.'i, 210, 272, 300, 307, Stow. John, 46.
•" -"■ Strode, Dr. WiUUra. 156.
Stubbn. Phillip, 46, 132. 133,
ouo, oio. 144, 155, 173, 226, 272, 273.
Shelley. Mre., 328. Surrey. Earl of, 109.
Shelton, Thomas, 283. Swift, Dean, 2, 3, 10, 11, 14, 15,
Shenstone, William. 52, 66, BO, 65, 82,105. 120, 122, 153, 293.
202. 219, 231. 266, 3U6. Sffinburne, Mr. A. C. 191.
Sheridan. R. 8.. 70, 178, 212, Symes, Chriatt>rei:, 174.
225, 22B, 233, 238, 210, 245, Tacitu;<, 98.
254,271. Talbot, Mias Catherine, 52, 176,
Shipley. Bishop. 124, 209. 220. 22!, 231.
Sidney, Sir Philip, 9, 40, 109, Talbot, Mr. H. Fox, 157.
307, 366, 368. Talfourd, Sir T. N., 1 59.
SkUlem, Mr. R. S., 326. Tavlor, Mr. Isaac, 132, 174, 176,
Smart, Mr. B. H., 140, 162, 308, 185, 194.
309. Taylor, Biahop Jeremy, 44, 128,
Smith, John, 90. 180.
Smith, Rev. Sydney, 53, 55, 105, Taylor, John, 21. 176, 221.
132.176,214,217,263. Taylor, Thomas, 55, 123, 157,
Smith, Dr. W., 322. 216.
South. Dr. Robert. ]4. 281, 293. Taylor. William. 43. 45. 60, 61,
Southey, Robert. 20, 21. 22, 29. 69, 99,'I21, 126. 131. 133, 135,
44. 63. 60. 62. 64. 71, 6U, S3, 151, 173. 175, 177, 183, 185,
84,92, 101,104. 121, 123, -29, 222. 283, 289, 301, 313, 315,
132, 135,156, 73, 78,179, 317,367.
1B2, 183, 184, 90, 191, 94, Tei^Quuih. Lord, 82, 216, 296.
202, 205, aOB, 2]0, 216, ^25, Temple. Sir William, 14, 44, 119,
238. 242, 260, 2S1, 267 26!j, 148, 160, 268.
283, 2SI, 285. 289, 29 atf7. Tennyson, Mr, Alfred, 78, 139.
298, 299, 300, 301, 301, 305. Terry, Rev. Edward, 47, 161, 174.
306, 307 3U9. 314, 313, 3 9, Tliaokeray, Mr. W. M., 16, 54,
323. 326, 3-i9, 331. 81, 82. 172, 271, f., 307, 331.
Southvell, Rer. Robert, 79, 361, Thornton. Bonnel, 10. 80, 82,
368. 156, 206, 211, 215, 217, 262,
Spenser, 10, 15. 42. 57, 59, 108, 264.
123, 180, 287, 356. Thrale, Mrs. H, L., 176,
Sprat. Bishop, 7, 8, 9, 118, 156, Thucydides, 265.
211. Tickell, Richard, 172.
Stael. Madame de, 152. Tillotson, Archbishop, 95.
Stanhop«, Lady Hestar, 176. Tilson, J., 43.
StebbinK, Dr. H., 81. Todd, Archdeacon. 44, 46, 73, 74,
Steele, Sir Richard, 63, 66, 80, 115, 120. 128, 129. 132. 133,
82. 160, 161, 174, 215, 221, 140, 143. 144, 160, 172, 176,
232. 233, 234, 217, 256, 259, 178, 215. 272, 283, 297, 298,
362,364. 299,301,305.317.
StephMua, Queen of Navarre, 64. Todd, Dr. J. H., 49, 50.
INDEX OP AUTHORS, ETC.
377
Tooke, Rev. John Home, 15,
183, 295. 335, 336.
Townley, Col. John, 105.
Trench, Archbishop, 44, 62, 63,
69, 131, 151, 172, 287, 292.
Tusser, Thomas, 207, 211, 229,
230, 233, 252, 272, 314.
Twisse, Dr. William, 215.
Udall, Rev. Nicholas, 64, 79, 108,
159, 162, 197, 224, 230, 249,
261, 264, 272, 312, 352, 355,
361, 362, 366, 367, 368.
Urquhart, Sir Thomas, 43, 117,
125, 132, 157, 186, 206, 226.
Vanbrugb, Sir John, 65, 206, 224,
259.
Vanbrugh and Colley Gibber, 156,
253, 259.
Vaugelas. C. F. de, 12.
Vernon, Rev. George, 115, 368.
Verstegan, Richard, 4, 6, 91, 111,
112, 183.
Viennet, M., 129.
Vincent, St., of Lerins, 39.
Virgil, 15.
Voltaire, 26, 28, 100.
Walker, John, 161.
Walpole, Horace, 13, 64, 122,
124, 132, 133, 168, 173, 176,
206, 209, 212, 225, 228, 239,
240, 254, 258, 262, 299, 309,
317, 357.
Warburion, Bishop, 43, 82, 83,
90, 134, 160, 166, 21 1, 212, 213,
215, 223, 246, 256. 299, 357.
Warton, Dr. Joseph, 246, 266.
Warton, Rev. Thomas, 116, 173,
252, 257.
Washington, George, 326.
Waierland, Dr. D., 115.
Watson, George, 230, 318.
Watsun, Rev. William, 42, 63,
88, 111,222,361.
Watts, Dr. Isaac, 35, 43.
Webbe, William, 223, 242. 356.
Webster, Dr. Noah, 139, 140,'
143, 175, 179, 221, 282, 283,!
295, 298, 304.
Webster's Editors, Dr., 38, 49.
66, 132, 139, 143, 149, 158,
162, 166, 167, 176, 179, 185,
216, 221, 229. 242, 263, 272,
283, 284, 285, 298, 301, 307,
3U8, 309, 319
Wenley, Rev. John, 48, 298.
Westcomb, Miss, 43.
Wey, M. Francis, 12, 100, 129,
153, 250, 263, 303, 315, 316.
Whately, Archbishop, 300, 304,
337.
Whettitones, George, 314.
Whewell, Dr. W., 132.
White, R., 132.
White, Mr. R. G., 36,192, 193, f.,
302, 303, 307, 316, 322, f.,
362 f.
Whiilocic, Dr. Richard, 272.
Whittier, Mr. J. G., 182.
Wicliffe, 49, 50, 73, 146, 159.
Wilberforce, Bishop, 48, 90, 290,
296 329
Wilkes, John, 82, 90, 128, 149,
214, 222, 223, 232, 235, 240,
244, 256, 268, 317, 318.
Wilkes, Miss, 53.
Wilkin, Mr. Simon, 46.
Wilkins, Bishop, 45, 89, 121.
Wilies, Richarde, 108, 109.
William of Palerne, 358.
Wilson, Prof. H. H , 174.
Wilson, Burnaby & Co., 236.
Wiseman, Cardinal, 46.
Wiiherspoon, Dr. John, 136.
Worcester, Dr. Joseph E., 48, 49,
132, 133, 143, 156, 179, 216,
287, 296, 305, 307, 309, 313,
320, 322, 337.
Wordsworth, Bishop Christopher,
33 298
Wordsworth, W., 29, 68, 156,
178, 216,306,307.
Wraxall, Sir N. W., 306.
Wright, Mr. Thomas, 313.
Wright, Mr. W. Aldis, 353,
Wyatt, Sir Thomas, 109.
Young, Dr. Edward, 236.
INDEX OF BOOKS, etc.
Abel RedeviTus, 223.
Anturs of Arther, The, 353.
Apology for Lollard Doctrines,
159.
Asiatic Journal and Monthly
Register, &c., The, 198.
Bible, authorized version of the,
162, 252, 307, 352, 353, 355,
356, 362.
Bible, Geneva, 332, 352, 361.
British Critic, The, 298.
Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa, II
(translated by G. H.), 44, 63,
190, 222.
Cruel Assault of Gods Fort, The,
206.
Discoveries of the World, The,
268.
Dorset Glossary, The, 279.
Early English Alliterative Poems,
353.
Edinburgh Review, The, 72, 116,
128, 286, 293, 313.
Eikon Basilike, 114.
Eulogium, 107.
Felon Sowe, The, &c., 59.
Francion, The Comical History
of. 87, 111, 190, 212,223,232,
250, 265, 356, 360.
French Academic, The, Part 1
(ed. 1589), 67, 70, 133, 156,
355, 366.
Giles's Trip to London, 81, 220,
243.
Guardian, The, newspaper, 142.
Humours of Whist, The, 223,
244.
Hurlothrumbo, 113.
Letters of Junius, 67, 222, 225,
238. 244, 249, 254, 258, 269.
Literary Churchman, The, 108,
131.
London Review, The, 280.
Maroccus Extaticus, 249.
Mede, The Life of Joseph, 128.
Nation, The, 323, 344.
Naturall and Experimental! His-
tory of Winds, &c.. The (1653),
translated by R. G., 93, 128,
132, 189.
Newes out of Purgatorie, 254.
Nipotismo di Roma, II, Transla-
tion of, 43, 80.
North American Review, The,
322.
Notes and Queries, 48, 315.
Of the Olde God and the Newe,
226, 361.
Pall Mall Budget, The, 72.
Pall Mall Gazette, The, 168.
Pasquine in a Traunce, 226, 332.
Paul, The Life of . . Father, 133.
Percy's Folio MS., Bp., 358.
Praier and Complaynte, &c., The,
108.
Primer, Henry the Eight's, 167.
Promptorium Parvulorum, 287.
Public Opinion, 321.
Quarterly Review, The, 105, 297.
Questions of Profitable and Plea-
sant Concernings, 58, 79, 223,
272, 352, 356.
Remarks on the * Life of Mr. Mil-
ton *, &c. 66.
Rubin Good-fellow His Mad
Prankes and Merry Jests, 336.
Saturday Review, The, 45, 194,
274.
Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence,
The, 121.
Sir Amadace, 59.
Sir Gawayne and the Green
Knight, 65.
State JPapers, 356.
Stella Cleiicorum, 50.
Tarlton's Jests, &c., 172, 2I2«
273, 336.
Times, The, newspaper, 158, 29.3.
Westminster Review, The, 108.
World of Wonders, A, translated
by R. C, 106, 112, 123, 232,
272, 304.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
*«* Many terms adduced in this book are not here indexed. Groups of
such, generally arranged in alphabetical order, will be found at pp. 21, 22,
37, 38, 60, 61, 75, 100, 103, 104, 106, 108—110, 112, 114, 116, 120, 123, 127, 139,
141, 142, 149, 162, 158—163, 169, 174, 176, 182, 185—188, 194, 206, 206, 296, 297,
299, 301, 305, 311—314, 319, 320, 360.
A, misuses of, 209.
A-preparing, was,
&c., 332, 333.
Abandon, v. a., 131.
Abandonment, 131,
311.
Abhominable, 158, f.
Abhominal,. 159.
Ability, old use of,
210.
Abiogenesia,&c.,295.
Abiogenesis,&c.,295.
Able, der. of, 162.
Abomino, 159.
Abruption, 203.
Acclivitous, 176, 185.
Accommodate, 106.
Accommodation, 105,
106.
According as, 142.
Accredit, 283, f .
Accuse, for blame,
210.
Accustomed, for fre-
quented, 210, 276.
Act, V. a., for do, 203.
Act, for actuate, 166.
Activer, v. a., 129.
Adamantif erous , 1 7 7.
Adjectival, 141, 318,
367.
Adjectivial, 176.
Admire, for wonder,
&c., 210, 265.
Admittible, 176.
Adulate, 172, 299.
Adulatory, 286, 367.
Advertise, for inform,
266.
Advertisement, 127.
Advocate, v. a., 276,
285,300.
Advocate, v. n., 285.
Aerolite, 158.
Esthetic, 126.
Aliixal, 318.
Againsaw, 165.
Age, V. n., 285.
Aggressive, 275, 314.
Agree, for settle,
210.
Agree to, for fit, 210.
Agressif, 314.
Aid, der. of, 163.
Akme, 302.
Alert, alertness, 120.
Aliant, &c., 162.
Alien, 117.
All, for aU the, 205.
All along of, &c., 211.
AU and all, 210.
All as ever, 203, 210.
All one, for neverthe-
less, 210.
All that ever, 210.
All the same, for
nevertheless, 275.
Allay, for alloy, 266.
Alluvions, 319.
Alms, der. of, 163.
Alone, for only, &c.,
46, f., 246.
Alonely, 188.
Alt, 187, 211.
Altitudes, 187, 211,
368.
Amalgamize, 174.
Amb^e, 110, 254.
Ambassador, 120.
Ample, 119.
An end, 211.
Anachronic, &c., 315.
Anachrouous, 314, f.
Analogie, 4.
Analogon, 302.
Analogue, 302.
Analyse, v. a., 174,
175.
Analyse, sb., 174.
Analyser, 174.
Analysis, 174.
Analysize, 174.
Analyze, 158, 175.
Anastomose, 174, 175,
295.
Anastomosis, 174.
Anastomosize, 174.
Anathemize, 176.
Ancestorial, 132.
Ancestorially, 132.
Anchylose, 295.
Ancient, 158, 161.
Ancylose, 295.
Ancylosize, 295.
Andirons, 130.
Anent, 104.
Anguished, 71, f.
Anklet, 157.
380
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
Ankylose, 295.
Another from and to,
82.
AnotherguesSf 212.
Antecedent, 303.
Ant^c^dent, 303.
Antecedents, 302, f.
Anthropomorphize,
368.
Antic, 166.
Antipatriotic, 317.
Antiquarian, sb., 306.
Antique, 103, 166.
Antiques, for an-
cients, 108.
Any, uses of, 196.
Anywhere than,*82.
Apoplectic balsam,
127.
Apostate, v. n., 169.
Appeach, v. a., 248.
Appendical, &c., 185.
Appendicatory, 185.
Appendixious, 185.
Appetize, 132, 297.
Appliance, 307.
Apply, v.n., 123, 124.
Appreciant, 315.
Appreciate, v. a., 288.
Appreciation, 288.
Appreciative, 315.
Appreciatory, 315.
Apprehension, 111.
Appropriated, for ap-
propriate, 212.
Approve, for prove,
267.
Arbalist, 175.
Aristarchy, 143.
Aristocrat, 288.
Aristocrate, 305.
Aristocratic, sb., 288.
Armlet, 144, 157-
Arrangements, 121.
Artificial, 166.
Artilize, 178.
Artize, 178.
As, misuses of, 199,
213.
As, omitted, 212.
As, superfluous, 212,
213.
As how, for that, 213.
As now, for now, 213. '
As that, bad use of,
213.
As this day, for on
this day, 212.
As to-morrow, 203,
212.
As who, for who. 213.
Ascertain, for deter-
mine, &c., 213, 214,
297.
Ash, ashes, 132.
Asparagus, 161.
Assai. 54.
Assassin, 4.
Assay, for essay, 266.
Assez, 54.
Assist, for be present,
292.
Assubtiling, 110.
Assumptiousness, 318
At, for after, 2(4.
At, for in. 235.
At full, for in full,
• 214.
At the long run, 214.
At unawares, 214.
Atrabilarious, 132.
AtrabiUous, 132.
Attach, v.n., 142, 275,
283,
Attainder, 121.
Attitudinarian, 312.
Audacious, 110.
Authenticate, v. a.,
116, 132.
Authenticate, part.
adj., 132.
Authoress, 122, 187,
188.
Authress, 187.
Avant-peau, 112.
Averse from & to, 83.
Avocation, misuse of,
214, f.
Avocatifins, 214, f.
Away, to do, 267-
Away with, can't,
203, 216.
, Axial, 175.
i Azymes, 112.
Bad, for ill, 104, 217.
Bahn, der. of, 163.
Bam, V. a., 217.
Bam, sb., 217.
Bank, v. n., 299.
Banter, 120.
Barbarious, 160.
Base, V. a., 288.
Bastile, 162, 367. '
Battalion, 120.
Bawdry, for bawds,
312.
Be to seek, to, 217.
Because, for in order
that, 203, 217.
Bedsister, 165.
Beetlmg, 125.
Begun, for began,
i04, 207.
Behest. 108.
Being battered, was,
&c., 274, 283, 284^
294, 321, f .
Being doini^, 351.
Being gaping, &c.,
336, 337.
Being in fieri, 351.
Being, is, 340.
Belongings, 307.
Belovedest, 189.
Bemean, v. a., 293.
Benevolence, 117.
Benevolist, 176.
Berth, 128.
Beseeched, 139, 206.
Beseechinglike, 166.
Bespoke, for be-
spoken, 207.
Bestowal, 303.
Bestowment, 303.
Bestraughted, 361.
Betrayal, 304.
Betrayment, 304.
Better, for more, 104.
Better cheap, 217.
Better worth, for
worth more, 217.
Bibliophile, 176.
Bibliophilist, 176.
Blame, der. o^ 163,
309.
Blesseder, 189.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
381
Blood, for bleed, 217.
Blowed, 139, 206.
Blueth, 173.
Body-spirit, 183.
Bombast, adj., 256.
Both, uses of, 196,
197, 200.
Bottom, for ball of
threiwi, 217.
Borachio, 217.
Borealian, 100.
Borracho, 217.
Bounce, v. n., for lie,
218.
Bridal, der. of, 157.
Bridemaid, 218.
Broke, for broken,
104,207.
Brumal, 128.
Bubble, V. a. for
dupe, 218.
Bubble, sb., for dupe,
218.
Bumpsie, adj., 273.
Burstness, 165.
Busto, 266.
But now, for just
now, 218.
But I, for but me,
&c., 104, 303.
Buxom, for wanton,
218.
By, for from, 267.
By, for on, 204.
By and by, 166.
Cab. der. of, 162, 187.
Cable, V. a., 300.
Cank, V. n., 219.
Cannon, 166.
Cannonade, 120.
Capitalist, 311.
Capitalize, 194.
Captivate, for cap-
ture, 219.
Caricatura, 266.
Caricature, v. a., 301.
Carriage, 166.
Carriwitchet, 219,
368.
Cartel. 120.
Casual, sb., 306.
Catched, 139, 206.
Cates, der. of, 162.
Causativity, 308.
Cede, 275.
Celebrity, new use of,
304.
Cense, sb., 313.
Censorial, 110, 319.
Census, 313.
Cent, der. of, 162,
163.
Centenarian. 304, f.
Centenary, so., senses
of, 304, f., 368.
Century, old sense of,
305.
Cephalomant, 26.
Cereal, sb., 305.
Chagnn, 120.
Chamber, for bed-
room, 203, 219.
Chapman, 219.
Chargeable, for cost-
ly, 219.
Chark, for char, 204.
Cheapen, for ask the
price of, 166, 219.
Cherubim, a, 104.
Chian, sb. and adj.,
219.
Chieftain, 108.
Chin-cough, 219.
Chmk, for tit, 220.
Chiromantist, 26.
Chii'osopher, 179.
Chirosophist, 179.
ChiK)se, for wish,
220.
Chopping, adj., 220.
Chose, for chosen,
104, 139, 208.
Chum. 129.
Churcngoing - bell,
348.
Churchman, for ec-
clesiastic, 220.
Circumcision, 362.
Circumvallation, 120.
Cit, 187.
Civility, for civiliza-
tion, 166, 172,
220.
Civilizade, 177.
Civilization, 173, 275,
312.
Clad, for clothe, 59.
Classify, 299.
Clem, V. a., 280, 281.
Clever, for conveni-
ent, &c., 220, 221.
Clime, 366.
Clumsy, 106.
Cock of the game,
for game-coc^ 22 1 .
Cockroach, der. of,
128.
Coddle, V. a., 221.
Codify, 301, 317-
CoevaUty, 60.
Collaborator, 184.
Collection, 167.
CoUocution, 367.
CoUoquist, 311.
CoUoquize, 194.
Combustion, for tu-
mult, 221.
Commandant, 120.
Conmience, misuse of,
215.
Comment, v. a., 205.
Commentation, 132.
Commentitious, 117.
Commit one's self, to,
283.
Commode, for bawd,
221.
Commode, adj., 221.
Commodi^, 167-
Commonsenseadox,
26.
Communicat e,
strange use of, 204.
Communionable, 176.
Compage, 254.
Comparison of, in, 94.
Com{)a8sionate, for
pitiable, 221.
Compassionate, for
one who pities, 222.
Compassionevofe,
221.
Compatible, 110.
Compendious, 109.
Compete, 172, 287.
Competitive, 287.
383
INDEX OF W0RD3 AND FHBASBS.
Complement, 1(Hi.
Complei. 8b., ai»7.
Coiiipicxion, &<:., old
use ot, 167. 2-2-2.
CompluDce to, in, 93.
CompUuieutal, 2±2,
Complimentary, 2a3.
CompoBiire, oM u»e»
of, -JIM.
Coiu{>ouiie, foi com-
pomuj, 3lil.
Cihceile, 114, 117.
Ccincbiiuu, 3ti'2.
CoDdeiinit;, 1.12.
Condole, v. a., 222.
Condone, 299.
ConduL't, ah,, old use
of, -222.
Confident, adj., oIJ
use of, iVi
Conlideutia],'263,3S4.
Conformance, 173.
Conning, 1S9.
Coogtutimkte, 3(i7.
Congratulate, old use
^22-2.
Conscious, 10.'), 106.
Couaervative, sb.,
130.
Considerable, for ini-
portaut, 2ti7.
Consonant, 111.
CoDspicuity, 222.
Constate, v. a., 180,
lai.
Contaminate, 110,
111, 367.
Contemporary to, 87.
Contemiitible, for
contemptuous,
168, 222. f.
CoDtemptuouR, for
contemptible, 223.
Coutinuabur, 173.
Contrary from and
than, 82.
Convalesce, 287-
Conventical,adj.,177.
Conversation, If"
Copy of
Coquet, adj., 256.
Cormorant, 161.
Cornice, 119.
Coqis, 12J.
Correutioii, for cor-
revtnesa, 204.
Cotemporary, 118,
306.
Count on, to, 43.
Conntryship, 6.
Coxy, der, of, 272.
Coy, der. of. 163.
Crackawlu|),to,283.
Crass, &c., 128.
Credit, v. a., old use
ot,i
l,f.
-Copy
a old
senses of, 223.
Creolian, adj. & sb.,
■2-23.
Crescentade, 177.
UrtHtuiuitcliy, 3()U.
Criminate, 2'JH.
Cnticality, 103.
Criticize ut>on, to,273.
Cross, for opposite,
224,
Cuckoldly, adj., 224.
Cucuiiier, 119.
Cuff, sb., 224.
Culminate, 119.
Cult, 172.
Currant, 161.
Curriculus, 309.
Curriug, IMi).
Curtail, der. of, 185.
Curtal, adj., 18.i.
Curtal-axe, der. of,
iHrt.
Cushion, old use of,
224.
Custodian, 304.
Cut a i)ersoii, to, 283.
Cuticle, 117.
Dagger, 161.
Damageable, for de-
triiueiital, 224.
Damp, 106.
Dare, pres. and pret.,
229. f.
Dead-bom, 292.
Dealtaking, 165.
Dearworth, 16o.
DebaUate. v. a.. 103.
Deblaterat*, 138.
Deeade. for ten years,
304.
Dfe»de, for ten days,
Declamator, 173.
Deckmatory, 110.
Declination, 109.
Decompose, 29^.
Decompound, for de-
c.iiii|..)«e, -224.
Deducale, v. a., ISl,
182.
Deduct, for deduce,
104
Defendant, for de-
fender, 224.
Defendress, 188.
Deferential, 315.
Detial, 173.
Defile, 120.
Defunct, 106.
Degradation, for sub-
SadatioQ, 171.
ort, V. a., 227.
Deific, l.'>7.
Delineation, 109.
Delmqutslunent, 367.
Demagogues, 114.
Demand, for ask, 224,
Demand, sb. for ques-.
tiouj 225.
Demarcate, 293.
Demarcation, 2S8,
Democrat, 288, f.
D£mucrate,288,305.
Democratic, eb., S88,
368.
Democratical, adj.,
292-
Democratical, sb.,
288.
Democratist, 28a
Demonstration, Ill-
Demoralisation, 43.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
383
Demoralize, 296^ 297.
Denominationahsm,
44.
Denunciate, 132.
Deny, old uses of,
225.
Depalmate, 138.
Depauperize, misuse
of, 295.
Deploy, 301.
Dereliction, old use
of, 225.
Desert, 108.
Design for, old phrase
236.
Desirable, 167.
Desirous, 166.
Despecificate, 168.
Despicable, 108.
Destiny, v. a., 186.
Destructive, 108.
Desynonymize, 168.
Detainal, 173.
Deteriorate, 288.
Devilry, 132, 367.
Devotion, old use of,
225.
Dia, false etymology
of, 64.
Diabolus, ridiculously
etymologized, 50.
Diagnose, 174, 175,
295.
Diagnoser, v. a., 174.
Diagnosis, 174.
Diagnosize, 174.
Dialectal, 167.
Diamondiferous, 177.
Diction, 109, 366, f.
Differ with, &c., 82.
Difference than and
to, 82.
Different than, 82.
Different to. 77, f.,
276, 362, £., 366.
Differente a, 83.
Difticilement, 190.
Dit!icilitate,y. a., 184.
Difticilmente, 190.
Difficultate, v. a.,299.
Difficidtly, 189.
Digged, 207.
Dilapidate, v. n. , 204.
Dihgence, for coach,
238.
Dilly, for diligence,
238.
Dime, der. of, 163.
Dimension, 109.
Diminutival, 318.
Diplomacy, 313.
Diplomate, 305.
Diplomatist, 305.
Diplomatize, 194.
Directly, for as soon
as, 275, 292.
Dirge, der. of, 163.
Disacquaintance, 110.
Disadvise. v. a., 225.
Disagree n-om and to,
&c., 82, 366.
Disannul, 292.
Disclamatory, 26.
Disconsolation, 367.
Discordant from and
to, 83.
Discourse, v. a., 225.
Discover, for reveal,
&c., 267, f.
Discovery, for ex-
ploration, 268.
Disculpate, v. a., 119.
Disenaow, 301.
Disestablish, 301.
Disestablishment,
301.
Disfumish, v. a., 225.
Dish of tea, 225.
DishabiUtate, 299.
Disingenuity, 225.
Dislogistic. 308, f .
Disnatured, 225.
Disorganize, 288.
Dispend, for expend,
368.
Dispense, for exempt,
&c., 263, f.
Dispense, old uses of,
226, 368.
Dispense with, old
uses of, 226, 263,
Disputative, 110.
Disserviceable, 227.
Dissimilar from and
to, 83.
Dissuade, old use of,
227.
Dissyllable, adj., 227.
Distemperature, 227.
Distinguished, for
marked, ^27.
Ditionaries, 108.
Divert, v. n., 227.
Divest, 158.
Divinesse, 189.
Do, V. n., for contrive,
227.
Do away, v. a., 250,
267, 281.
Do away with, to,
281,284.
Doctrinaire, 312.
Doctrinarian,sb.,312.
Document, v. a., 227.
Documentation, 227.
Documentize, v. a.,
227.
Domestical, sb., 368.
Dominant, 319.
Dominator, 108.
Done up, for tired
out, 283.
Doubt, V. n., for sus-
pect, 228.
Douceur, old use of,
228.
Dowlas, 228.
Dowry, der. of, 163.
Doxy, der. of, 272.
Drank, for drunk,292.
Dreadful, 167.
Dress, v. a., old use
of, 228.
Dricksie, 273.
Dromidote, 110.
Dropsy, der. of, 162.
Drove, for driven,
139, 208.
Drownd, v., 361.
Drownded, 59.
Dry, for thii*sty, 228.
Dunstical, 261.
Durst, pres. tense,
228 f.
Dwindle, sb., 198,201..
384
INDEX OF WORDS AMD PHEA8ES.
Dying bed, 127.
Dynaineter, 178.
Dynamometer, 175.
Dyslo^Ktic, 308, (.
DyspepNj, 183.
Each, for every, 229.
Kacb, wiUi pla, 199.
Bach other Ume,203,
230.
Each other week, 230.
Eat, for ate, 207.
Economiaer, 297.
Economist, 311.
Economize, 297.
Bdit, 299.
EducationaWe, 176.
Educational, 131, f.,
286.
Effete, 319.
Effigy, der. of, 254.
Egregious, 1 10.
Elope, for eacape, 268.
Elopement,' old use
01,368.
Emancipist, 176.
Embarrass, sb., 230.
Embowe), 292.
BmigraDt, 312.
Emigrate, 283
Eminent, ff.- imini-
neat, 15^.
Emphas'^ 174, 295.
Empirical, 126.
Enajronont, 283.
EnejciopsEdy, 193,
Endeavour, v.a., 204.
Eiifaus, for emanta,
Enlarge, for liberate,
268.
Enlightenmont, 306.
Emuiuus, aaT-
Enorniiuus, 160, 289.
Entalentei^ y. a., 65.
Entirety, 43, 285, f.
Epitaphie, &c., 366.
Epitoniator, 173.
Equal with, 303.
E([ua]iUrian, 22,312.
Eipiator, 120.
Eijuip, 112.
Equiralent with, 87.
Equivoque, 120.
Ere, misuse of, 292.
BrgoDist, 110.
Eschew, 123.
Esperer, a use of.
Essay, for assay, 266-
Esse, 335, 34S.
Essere, 342, 343.
Establiskmentarian-
Evaporize, 174.
Eventual, 288.
Ever now and then,
230.
Every otiier while,
230.
Examinat«r, 173.
Exauiplesa, aJj., 189.
Exceiiti^fp, 40.
Eyccptionable, mis-
use of, 201.
Exceptional, 201,
315.
Exceptive, 31S.
Excurse, v. a. and n.,
Escursioiiize, 194,
297.
Executive, sb., SOS-
Exhaustive, 127-
Exigeot, eb., 170.
Exist, 335, f., 342.
Existence, 336.
Existere, 335.
Expect, T. n,, for
wait, 230.
Expectative,sb.,119-
Eipedicntial, 316-
Experiential, 132,
Experientially, 132.
Expert, Eb.,
Exposition,
pect, 204.
Femler, Hi!.
Fevei-et,&L',,sb.,5.1l.
Fierct-lier, 1S.S.
Figurative. Ibi).
riiiaudal, 17;!, ;!l.i.
Financier, 286, 31.").
Finesse, for fineness,
189.
Fishing-rod, 348.
Fixture. 130, aia
Fixate, 130, 313.
Flagitious, 117-
Flea, for flay, 160.
Flesher, for butclier,
292.
Fleshhood, 166.
Fhmay, 273.
Float,v. a., forflood,
231-
Florentine, sb.. 231.
Flush, adj., old use
of, 231.
Flux, adj., 204.
Fob, v.a, 231.
Fogo, 127-
FoMe, 120.
Fond, old uses of, 231 .
FooUsh-fire, 183.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
385
Footfast, 166.
For, old uses of, 268.
For, for from, 231.
For, ellipsis of, 271.
Foray, 307.
Fore, to the, 307.
Fore-elder, sb., 6.
Forego, 168.
Foreign from and
to, 83.
Formuler, v. a., 129.
Forsook, for for-
saken, 139, 208.
Forthj 123.
Fortnightly, adj.,
319, f.
Fouly, 188.
Fountain, 366.
Four, on all, 211.
Fracas, 127.
Franchise, 305.
Fraught, for freight,
59.
Fridge, v. a., 232.
Frightful, for timid,
232.
Frightfully, misuse
of, 199.
From, for to, 232.
From, ellipsis of, 232.
Frontispiece, 158.
Frontispiece, old uses
of, 232.
Frugality, 108, 366.
Fuldo, V. a., 6.
Fumette, 233.
Function, 109.
Futile, 166.
Futurely, 188.
Gadsi, 273.
Garotte, 313.
Garran, 233.
Gasconade, 120.
Gaud, 123.
Geldhood, 166.
Gender. 161.
General, 166.
Genteel, old use of,
233.
Geography, 366.
G et by, for overreach,
203, 233.
Gifted, 72.
Gigmanity, 19.
Gilt, for gild, 361.
Gird, girt, 69.
Girdlestead, 165.
Gloomth, 176.
Godlike- wise, 176.
Gouvemante, 269.
Governess, 188.
Governor, 175.
Gown, 107.
Go wnd, for gown, 36 1 .
Grade, 129, 288.
Graff, graft, 59.
Grain, in, 126..
Grandchild, 113.
Grandiloquent, 319.
Grandiose, 289.
Grandiose, 289.
Grandity, 61.
Gratefulness, 172.
Great, by the, 233.
Greenth, 173.
Grimace, 120.
Griskm, 233.
Grog, 128.
Groundstaddleness,
166.
Group, 119.
Grow, V. a., 282.
Gruntle, der. of, 272.
GuUy, 128.
H omitted, &c., 358.
Habitat, 162.
Uaematemesia, &c.,
295.
Haematemesis, 295.
Haltly, 58.
Hand, at the best,
233.
Happen on, to, &c.,
190.
Harass, sb., 292.
Hardiness. 269.
Harlot, adj., 256.
Harmonical, 109.
He, for it, 353.
Head, of its own, &c.,
203. 23:}, f .
Headlongly, 188.
Hearing, 108.
Heart-rending, 124.
25
Heathenry, 133, 312.
Heathnical, 155.
Hehatic, 368.
Helpmate, 156.
Helpmeet, 156, 367.
Hen-egg, 204.
Her, for 's, 355, f.
Hermaphrodite, 110.
Hery, lieryinge, 108.
Him, for he, 199.
Him. for it, 352, 353.
Hind, sb., 234.
Hippodonomia, 175.
His, for its, 352.
His, for 's, 355, f.
His self, 352.
Hist, for hiss, 119.
Hit, for it, 352.
Hit, for its, 353.
Hogo, &c., 127.
Hoise, hoist, 59.
Holocausts, 112, 114.
Homicide, 108.
Homoeosemant, 172.
Homograph, 170.
Homologon, 302.
Homologue, 302.
Homophone, 170.
Homotaxia, &c.,295.
Homotaxis, 295.
Honeyed, &c., 70.
Hospitabihty, 186.
Hospital, adj., 187.
Huggle, der. of, 272.
HumaUj 166.
Humanitaire, 316.
Humanitarian, adj.,
316.
Humanitian, 111.
Humile, v. a., 133.
HumiUate, 133, 276.
Humiliating, 367.
Hungarian, 112.
Hunger-starve, v. a.,
281.
Hydroprdtre, 175.
Hypostatize, 368.
Idea, 105.
Idelly, 188.
Identification, 312.
Identify, 299.
Identity, 312.
386
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
IdeoCTaphic, 368.
Ideolatry, 368.
Ideology, 180, 288.
Idiom, 109, 117, 118.
Idiom, defin. of, 842.
Idiotlsm, 118".
Idlely, 188.
Idlesby, 272, 273.
Idolatry, 163.
If, ellipsis of, 234
Ignomy, 176.
Ignore, 118, 166,301.
Ill, for bad, 234.
Illiterature, 22, 313.
Illucidate, 159.
Illudius, 354.
Illustiicity, 176.
Illustrious, 289.
Imbibed, 108.
Immediately, for as
soon as, 275.
Immerge, v. a., 234.
Immigrant, 283.
Impartation, 176.
Imperatival, 318.
Imperial, for imperi-
ous, 276.
Imperisli, 367.
Impersonal, 102.
Impertinence, old use
of, 269.
Impertinent, old use
of, 269.
Importable, 167.
Importunacy, 234.
Impossibilification,
184.
Impossibilitate, v. a.,
184.
Impress, for impress-
ment, 204.
Impression, 109.
Imprision, sb., 367.
Improvisation, 312.
Improvise, 301.
Impum, 62.
Impulsive, sb., 169.
Imson, sb., 182.
In, for on, 235.
In, now superfluous,
235.
In, ellipsis of, 269.
In course, for of
course, 234.
Inadmissible, 319.
Inaptitude, 305, f.
IncongTuent, 367.
Incontinently, 80.
Incubus, 106.
Incuriosity, 43, 1 14.
Incurious, 44, 114.
Incuriously, 44.
Incuriousness, 44.
Independent from,
&c., 87, 362, f.
Independently of, 94.
Indifferent to, 362.
Indi<mity, 109.
Indulge, for allow,
235, f.
Indulgence, v. a., 292.
Industrial, 288, 316.
Industry, 107.
Inept^ 306.
Ineptitude, 305, f.
Inerme, 176.
Infallibilist, 301.
Infamize, 133.
Infamizer, 133.
Infantry^ 113.
Inferential, 284.
Infinitely, 292, f.
Inflate, 106.
Influencive,.&c., 286,
Xm
Influential^ &c., 276,
286, f.
Inform, old use of,
236.
Infuriate, adj., 123.
Ingenious, 111.
Ingenuity, misuse of,
204.
Ingredient into, 87.
Inhabit, v. n., 236.
Inhabitable, 167.
Inimical, 140, 286, f.
Inimicitious, 287.
Inimicous, 287.
Injury, v. a., 186.
Ink, der. of, 163.
Innovate, v. a., 204.
Insane asylum, 127.
Inseparable to, 82.
Insolens, 168.
Instantly, for as soon
as, 275.
Instructess, 187.
Insularity, 306.
lusuppressive, 173.
Fn't, 203, 236.
Intellect, 107.
Intend, v. a., old use
of, 236.
Intend for, old
phrase, 236.
Intensate, 299.
Intensify, 301.
Intensive, 126.
Interchangeable, old
use of, 236.
Interest of, in the,
276.
Interfuse, 110.
Internmtual, &c.,
242.
International, 19,
173, 316, f.
Inter-repellent, 317.
Interrogate, 111.
Interview, v. a., 300.
Intimado, sb., 236.
Intiment, 162.
Into, for to, 236.
Intreatable, 167.
Invalid, 127.
Inveigle, 109.
Investigable, 167.
Inveterably, 176.
Inveterate, 35.
Inwit, 165.
Irreductibility, 181.
Irrespectively of, 94.
Is, for his, 358, 359.
Is, for 's, 358, 359.
Isolate, 298.
It, for its, 352, 353.
It is these, 40, f.
Itinerate, v. n.. Ill,
298.
Its, age of, 353,354.
Jakes, 80.
Jemmy, sb., 237.
Jeopara, jeopardy,
122.
Jewellery, 312.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
387
Jim-whiskee, 257.
Joseph, sb., 237.
Jouir, misuse of, 202.
Jumps, sb., 237.
Jungle, 306.
Junkery, for junkets,
312.
Jimquetry, 312.
Jut, sb., for push,
237.
Juxtapose, v. a., 334.
Kayau, sb., 219.
Kennel, for gutter,
237.
Kerchief, 157.
Kicksy-wicksy, der.
of, 272.
Kmdly, 166.
Kinswoman, 122.
Knowable, 297.
Knowing, old use of,
269.
Kypsey, 273.
Lady, tor wife, 237.
Lambs'-wool, 237.
Lamentablely, 188.
Lancent, 162.
Landscape, 158.
Largeity, 61.
Latrina, 187.
Lay, sb.. 237.
Leadingiike, 166.
Leaf of a hat, 237.
Learned book, 168.
Leasing, for glean-
ing, 237.
Leggings, 128.
Lengthy, 56.
Lenience, 315.
Lewdsby, 272.
Liberal, sb., &c., 296.
Liberalize. 296.
Lie, for lodge, 203,
238.
Lief, 203, 238.
Lieve, 238.
Lightning, 163.
Like, had, 269.
Limp, adj.. 320.
Limpsy, 27^
Linguacious, 183.
Liusey, ;273.
Literate, sb., 184.
Literato, 184.
Literator, 184.
Litherbie, 272.
Livelihood, &c., 155,
367.
Livelong, 126.
Loathsome, 167.
Locate, 172, 282.
Locution, 306.
Long of, 211.
Longsome, 56.
Look, V. a., 205.
Loseness, 166.
Ludicrous talent, 127.
Lurcher, for lurker,
238.
Lutestring, to speak
in, 238.
Lyingness, 189.
Macaroni, for fop,
238.
Machine, for coach,
238.
Macliines, for machi-
nery, 239.
Mad doctor, 127.
Magistratieal, 185.
Magnanimity, 107,
108.
Magnetist, 311.
Ma^etize, 288.
Mails, old use of, 269.
Main, adv., 203, 239.
Make-belief, 292.
Makeshift, senses of,
313, f.
Malapert, 239.
Malinger, 301.
Maltalent, 65.
Manage, sb., 169.
Manitorm, 26.
Manipular, 101.
Mannerism, 311.
Mannerist, 311.
Mansuetude, 107,
110.
Manufactural, 45.
Many, a pretty, 239,
276.
Marauding, 120.
Margent, 161.
Material, sb., 306, f.
Materiel, 307.
Matter, v. a., 239.
Maturity, 107.
Maximize, 297, 317.
Mazard, 239.
Me, for I, 199.
Meanly, 167.
Meanly, misuse of,
199.
Meat, old use of, 205.
Mediocrity, new use
of, 304.
Medium, for average,
239.
Meed, 123.
Meet-help, 156.
Meet helper, 156.
Melancholiac, 26.
Memorialize, 171,
297.
Menagery, 182.
Mercy, der. of, 163.
Messager, 161.
MetalUne, 239.
Metamorphize, 174.
Metamorphose, 174.
M6tamorphoser, 174.
Metamorphosize, 1 74.
Methodj 109.
Methodical, 109.
Metrical, 109.
Midst, in our, 48, f .
Migrant, sb., 313.
Migrate, 299.
MiUtate^ 285, 345.
Millenmal, 128.
MiUionaire, 183.
Millionist, 22, 183,
312.
Mmimize, 297, 317.
Minutiose, 168.
Miscellaneous author,
127.
Miscellany, adj. ^239.
Miscreate, miscre-
ated, 42.
Misnomered, 195.
Missile, misuse of,
171, 293.
Mistress, old use of,
240.
388
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
.•--*-
Miswent, have, 360.
Mob, der. of,163,187.
Mobile, for mob, 240.
Mockado, 240.
Modesty, 107.
Molasses, 128.
Molotto, 113.
Monetary, 288.
Monograph, 307.
Monomial, 175.
Mononomial, 175.
Monosyllable, adj.,
227.
Monstruous, 160,289.
Mopsy, 273.
Morbific, 157.
More but, 82.
Mort, 203, 240.
Mosquito, 112.
Most an end, 211.
Mountain, a bever-
age, 240.
Mountainous, old use
of, 205.
Much beneficial, &c.,
55.
Mulata, 112.
Mumpsimus, 137.
Musquetade, 120.
Mussel, 166.
Mutinmg, 189, 240.
Mutton, for sheep,
240.
Mutual, old uses of,
240, f . . 368.
Mutual, for alternate,
&c., 242.
Mutual friend, 26,
241, f.
Myriad, 113.
Mystify, v. a., 129.
Naivety, 182.
Narrate, 121, 172,
275, 287.
Nation, for great deal,
243.
Naturalist, old sense
of, 309.
NaturaHstic, 309.
Naturian, 111.
Near, for stingy, 203,
243.
Neck-handkerchief,
157.
N6cromant, 26.
Nefast, 100.
Negoce, 117, 180.
Negra, 113, 114.
Neighbour, adj., 256.
Neighbour, v. a., 243.
Neither, for either,
243.
Neither . . nor . . are,
&c., 199, 292.
N6ologie, 179.
Neologisme, 179.
Neoterism, 19.
Nephew. 113.
Never, tor ever, 270.
Nextly, 58.
Night-raU. 243.
Nine, to tne, 26.
Nobiliary, 317.
Noddle, V. a., 243.
Nominatival, 318.
Nonagenarian, 304.
None, uses of, 196.
Norm, 133.
Notability, for nota-
ble person, 304.
Noteworthy, 317.
Notice, V. a., 285.
Noticeable, 173, 285.
Notoriety, new use
of, 304.
Notwithstanding,
misuse of, 292.
Novel, sb., 133.
Novelet, 133.
Number . . were, 199.
Nuraerosity, 110.
Numerous, 109.
Numerous, old uses
of, 243, f .
Objective, 126.
Objectivity, 308.
Oblivionize, 367.
Obnoxious, for liable,
270.
Obscure, 109, 111.
Obsequious, 108.
Observation, for ob-
servance, 292.
Obtainal, 173.
Obtundity, 176.
Obviate, 111.
Occasional, old use
of, 270.
Occasionally, old use
of, 270.
Occurrent, sb., 170.
October, for cider,
244.
Octogenarian, 304.
Of, old uses of, 205,
244, f.
Of, for at, &c., 87.
Of, superfluous, 270.
Of, eUipsis of, 270, f .
Offspring, for origin,
6.
Oftenly, 58.
Oil. der. of, 163.
Olden, v., 275.
Omnibus, sb., 254.
Omniscian, 112.
On losing, was, 332.
On, for of, 245.
On, for to, 246.
On the long run, 292.
On to, prep., 276.
Onliest, 246.
Onlight, 165.
Only, for mere, &c.,
47.
Only, odd use of, 246^
Only, misplacement
of, 200.
Only, misuse of, 200.
Open, sb., 305.
Operative, sb., 314.
Oppidant, 162.
Opposite from, 82.
Optimist, 311.
Optimize, 194.
Or, with plu., 199.
Oratorial, 246.
Original, for origin,
271.
Oridnate, 298.
Orphant, 162.
Orthopaedic, 158.
Otacust, 113.
Outbreathed, 246.
Outlander, 6.
Outling, 165.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
389
Outlook, 121.
Out-of-fashione(i,246
Outtake, prep., 1G5.
Outtaleuted, 72.
Outwending, 1G5.
Overthrowed, 207.
Pair, old uses of ,246,f .
Palate, v. a., for taste,
247.
Palisado, 120.
Palsy, der. of, 163.
Pander, 158.
Pantisocrat, 289.
Pantisocratist, 289.
Papalin, 247.
Papish, sb., 247.
Paitilleless, adj., 189.
Paralyse, v. a., 174,
175, 288.
Paralyse, sb., 175.
Paralyser, v. a., 174.
Paralysie, 174.
Paralysis, 174.
Paralysize, 174.
Paralyze, 175.
Parapet, 120, 121.
Parasite, 306.
Paichment, 161.
Parenthese, sb., 174.
Pareuthese, v. a., 174.
Parenthesize, 20, 174.
Parlour, 247.
Partially, for not to-
tally, 191, 192, 276.
Particular, old use of,
247.
Parts, for talents, 292.
Party, for person, 81,
345.
Pasche, 112.
Pass, well to, 247.
Passage, v. n., 292.
Passager, 161.
Passing, for more
than, 248.
Past, for after, 124.
Patrial, 133.
Patriarchess, 187.
Patriot,adj.,256,317,
f.
Patriotic, 117, 286,
317,1
Paup^risme, 316.
Peachj V. a., 248.
Peaclufy, v. a., 26.
Peasant, 161.
Peculiar from, 82.
Pedagogue, 366.
Pedant, der. of, 175.
Pence, der. of, 163.
Pend, for pen, v. a.,
361.
Penetrabilis, 168.
Penetrable, 109.
Penetrate, 109.
Pennant, 161.
Perfectionator, 173.
Perfectionment, 22,
103.
Perflation, 205.
Perk, for perch, 238,
248.
Perspective, 157.
Pert, der. of, 162.
Pervert, sb., 130, 308.
Pessimist, 311.
Pessimize, 194.
Petrific, 158.
Petted, for piqued,
248.
Phantasie, 356.
Phantasmalian, 100.
Pheasant, 161.
Philander, 275, 299.
Philosophaster, 179.
Philosophastry, 179.
Philosophate, v. n.,
186.
Philosopher, v. n.,
179.
Philosophiser, v. n.,
179.
Philosophlsm, &c.,
178, 179.
Philosophisme, 179.
Philosophist, &c.,
178, 179.
Philosophistical, 178.
Philosophobist, 176.
Philosophy, v. n.^186.
Phrase, for smgle
wordi 306.
Physical, a use of,
3J9.
Physicist, 308.
Physiocrat, 152, 289.
PiccadUly, 107.
Picnician, sb., 26. '
Pictorial, 286, f.
Pictural, sb., 287.
Picturesqueness, 126.
Pin, for mood, 248.
Pistate, V. a., 138.
Pize, 248.
Placation, 109.
Plagiary, 271.
PlamUer, &c., 347.
Plain-sailing, 176.
Plasticity, 308.
Platitude, &c., 309, f.
Pleasure, v. a., 248,
292.
Plebiscite, 310.
Plenipo, 187.
Plenty, adj., 248.
Plunder, 113.
Plurahty, old use of,
248.
Pocket-handkerchief
157.
Poetess, 123.
Police, 124.
PoUtien, 110.
Polysemant, 170.
Ponderous, 108.
PontificaliDUS.in,254.
Pontoon, 120.'
Poor's box. 218.
Popeling, aer. of, 247.
Port, der. of, 187.
Portentous, 108.
Pos, 187.
Possibilitate, v. a.,
22. 184.
Postnumous, 158.
Posthumous compo-
sitions, 202.
Power, for great deal,
104, 249.
Prayerful, 130, f.
Preterable, old use of,
249.
Preheminence, 159.
Preliminary, sb., 120.
Premit, for premise,
133.
390
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
Prepuce, 112.
Prejudice, misuse of,
198, 201.
Presbyter, eccentric
etymologies of, 50.
President, for prece-
dent, 159.
Pr6tentieux, 318.
Pretentious, 173,318.
Prevent, for forestall,
166, 249.
Priest, der. of. 163.
Priest, false aer. of,
50.
Primeval, 117.
Primosity, 176.
Privado, 249.
Problematical, 122.
Proceeds, sb., 122.
Process, old use of,
206.
ProcUvity, 307.
Proctor, 176.
Prodigious. 108.
Productibility, 181.
Profaness, 189.
Professional, sb., 305.
Professoress, 187.
Profile, 182.
Progress, v. n., 72,
286, f.
Progresser,v. n., 314,
f.
Propressif, 314, f.
Proneme, 159.
ProHx, 109.
Promettre, slang use
of, 260.
Promiscuous, 111.
Promiscuously, 111.
Promise, for assure,
249, f.
Proness, 189.
Propone, for pro-
pound, 110.
Propoune, for pro-
pound, 361.
Prorogation, 366.
Prosaist, 308.
Prothonotary, 158.
Pseudomantist, 26.
PubUcist, 288.
Pudgy, 273, 319.
Pudsev, 273.
Puff, for praise, 130.
Pulse, sb. plu., 250.
Punue, for pound,
V. a., 361.
Pure, for very, 250.
Purely, for notably,
250.
Puritant, 162.
PiLsh an investiga-
tion, to, 283.
Put, sb., 250.
Put up, V. a., 250,
281.
Put up with, to, 279, f .
Put upon, to, 203,
2.50.
Putid, 117, 180.
Quaft, for quaff, 361.
Qualitative, 133.
Quat, for squat, 250.
Quisby, 273.
Quite, 51, f.
Quite a child, &c.,276.
Raid, 307.
Raillery, 127.
Rampart, 120.
Ransom, der. of, 163.
Ratio, 95.
Rational, 112.
Raught, for reached,
139, 206.
Realize, senses of,
292, 296, f .
Reap-hook, 119.
Reason, to have, 250.
Receptivity, 126, 308.
Reciprocal, 106.
Reckon, old use of,
251.
Recognize, 118.
Rocognosce, 118.
Recompense, for com-
pensate, 261.
Reconnoitre, 120,
121, 122.
Reconvert, sb., 308.
Rectoress, 187.
Recuperate, 367.
Redaction, 310.
R^edify, 192.
Reenverse, v. a., 181.
Reestablish, 192.
Reestate, 299.
Reference of, in, 85,
87.
Refinmg, 109.
Regard, for relation,
&c., 90, f.
Regard of, in, 84, f .
Regard of, with, 87-
Regard, in, for com-
paratively, 93.
Regimental, sb., 251.
Rehabilitate, 299.
Rehabilitation, 299.
Rehabiliter, 299.
Rehedification, 159.
Relation of, in, 94.
Relatively of, 85, 94.
Relativibility, 368.
Reliable, 320, 348.
Relief, 119.
Religion, 172.
Religionist, 166.
Relumine, v. a, 251.
Remain, sb., 119.
Remarker, 35.
Remnant, 163.
Remotion, 180.
Remuneration, 105,
106.
Rended, 57.
Rent, for rend, 57,
361.
Renverse, v. a., 180,
181.
Replete, 124.
Reposit, 251.
Repudiate, 117-
Requirement, 2Q6.
Requisition, 283.
Respect, for relation,
&c., 86; 88. f., 366.
Respect, m, for rela-
tively, &c., 85, 91,
Respect of, in, 84, f .
Respect of, with, 87.
Respect, with, for
relatively, &c., 85,
91, f.
Respectable, 288.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
391
Respective, for rela-
tive, 93.
Respective, for due,
respectful, &c., 93,
167.
Respectively, for re-
latively, 93.
Respectively to, 85,
93.
Resurrect, 194.
Resurrectionize, 194.
Retainal, 173.
Retrograde, 106.
Retrovert, sb., 308.
Revolt, V. a., 299.
Rewrite, &c., 60.
Rhinocerical, 174.
Rhinocerot^ &c., 174.
Rhinocerotic, 174.
Rhodomontade, 158.
Rhvme, 158.
Rid, for rode, 207,
208.
Ridicule, 120, 127.
Ridicule, for ridicu-
lousness, 255.
Rife, 125.
Righteous, 155.
Rightwise, 155.
Rigsby, 272.
Rimose, 251.
Rimpled. 251.
Ringle, aer. of, 272.
Risible, misuse of,
198, 201.
Rivaless, 187.
Rive. 280.
Road, for inroad, 307.
Rode, for ridden, 207,
208.
Roll, for enroll, 251.
Rotund, sb., 266.
Round, for whisper,
361.
Roundabout, a dance,
251.
Round - house, for
lock-up, 251.
Route^ 127.
Row, tor disturbance,
133.
Rudesbey, 273.
Rudesby, 272.
Rim, for ran, 104^
207, 208.
Run down, to, 279,
280.
Rural, 111.
Rust, to take, 251.
Sacerdocracy, 176.
Sacrilegiously, 110.
Saloon, old use of,
251, f.
Same with, 303.
Sameness with, 303.
S'anastomoser, 174.
Sanction, v. a., 300.
Sandapile, 138.
Saturation, 129.
Saturity, 129.
Sausenger, 161.
Savage, 109.
Scand, for scan. 361.
Scantle, der. ot, 272.
Sciential, 157.
Scientifial, 157.
Scientific, 109, 157.
Scientist, 309.
Sconce, sb., 252.
Sconce, v. a., 133,252.
Scoundrel, adj., 256.
Seek, V. n., for apply,
252.
Seen, for versed,
252.
Semeiology, 45.
Senectude, 26.
Seneschalship, 133.
Sennight, 261.
Sentimentahst, 311.
Sentimentalize, 298.
Septuagenarian, 304.
Septuagesimal, mis-
use of, 12.
Sepulture, for sepul-
chre, 45, f., 36U
Sepulture, v. a., 149.
Sere, 280.
Serial, sb., 305.
Set, for sit, 104.
Sexagenarian, 305.
Sexagenary, 144.
Sheen, 123.
Shined, 207.
Shook, for shaken,
208.
Shore, from shear,
139.
Shred, for scatter,
252.
Shriftfather, 165.
Shunt, V. a., 300.
Sick room, 127.
Significative, 109.
Significative, for ex-
pressive, 252.
Simplician, 111.
Sithence, 356.
Sitten, 139.
Sketchy, 319.
Slided. 207.
SUngsby, 273.
Smaily, 188.
Smash. 128.
Smatcn, sb., 253.
Smoke, v. a., old uses
of, 253.
Smoky, old use of,
253.
Smoothen, 40.
Smoulder, 122, 123,
367.
SneakbUl, 272.
SneaksbiU, 272.
Sneaksby, 272.
Sniff, snift, 59.
Snore, snort, 59.
So ... as, &c., old
use of, 253.
Soberize, 298.
Sobriety, 108.
Soddened, 59.
Solicitate, 108.
Solidarity, 310.
SoUdary, 310.
SoUdity, technical
sense of, 310.
Soly, for solely, 188.
Somehow or another,
26.
Sooth, in, 123.
Sound, for swoon,
253.
Sonne, for sound, 361.
Souse, for sous, 266.
Sparagrass, 161.
392
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
Sparagos, 161.
Sparrowgrass, 161.
Special, sb., 305.
Specialist. 308.
Specie, old uses of,
&c., 263, f., 310.
Species, old uses of,
254.
Speech-lore, 183.
Spoke, for spoken,
207, 208.
Sprang, for sprung,
208.
Sputatilic, 158.
Square, in comp., for
cornered, 254.
Squirrelline, 176.
Stand with, old use
of, 254.
Stand-pomt, 289.
Stare, 342, 343.
Start-up, adj., 254.
Starvation, 279, f.,
287.
Starve, 280, 281, 368.
Starve, misuse of,
194.
Steel, for bastile, 162.
Steorfan, 281.
Sterling, der. of, 187.
Stive, V. a., 254.
Stole, for stolen, 208.
Storey, 166.
Story, for plot, 254.
Strange of, to make,
254, f .
Strappado, 255.
Stratagem, 366.
Stratag^me, 4.
Streak, for rung, 255.
Strenuous, 105, 106.
Stupendious, 159,
160.
Stupenduous, 160.
Sub-clavian, 175.
Subjective, 126.
Subjectivity, 308.
Sublime, for sub-
limity, 255.
Substantival, 318.
Substraction, 119,
159.
Subtily. 188.
Suburbial, 173.
Suburbian, 173, 367.
Succedaneous, 43.
Succumb, 122.
Such . . who, 256. .
SuflSciency, 119.
Suite, 122.
Summarist,f311.
Summarize, 194.
Summist, 144.
Superannuation, 124.
Supercherie, 4.
Supercheiy, 182.
Superfinesse, 189.
Superweening, 100.
Supplement, v. a.,
300.
Supplementation,
300.
Surebie, 272.
Suresby, 272.
Surgeon, 163.
Surquedry, 182.
Suspect, sb., 167.
Suspectable, 167.
Suspectful, 167.
Suspense, v. a., 226.
Suspicable, &c., 167.
Sweeting, sb., 256.
Sycophant, adj., 256.
Swoon, 59.
Swound, 59.
Syllable, &c., 161.
Syllogize, 43.
Symbolatrous, 367.
Symbolatry, 367.
Symbology, 180, 367.
Symbolology, 180.
Synonym, 172.
Syntaxical, 176.
Synteresis, 367.
Systemize, 175.
Tabby, sb., 237.
Tables, old use of,
256.
Tact, 286.
Take in, for dupe, 1 25.
Take place, old use
of, 256.
Take notice, old use
of, 256.
Take shame to one's
self, to, 283.
Talent, talents, 61, f.,
361.
Talent, for talon, 161.
Talented, 70, f.
Talentif, 65.
Talentum and its de-
rivatives, 64, f .
Tally, adv., 188.
Tansy, der. of, 162.
Taplash, sb., 256.
Tardity, 61.
Tarring, for tarrying,
189.
Tartar, 158.
Teached, 139, 206,
207.
Technology, misuse
of, 175.
Teens, 162.
Telegram, 100, 158,
314.
Telegrapheme, 158.
Temperance, 108,366.
Temperated, 256.
Tender, 161.
Tenent, 162.
Teresa, sb., 256.
Terrorist, 311.
Terrorize, 298.
Test, V. a., 300.
Testimonialist, 311.
Testimonialize, 194.
Tetrastich, 112.
That, old uses of, 257.
That, ellipsis of, 257.
That, misuse of, 202.
Theaterian, 112.
Theirj for 's, 356,359.
Theins, theirs, 358.
Their self, 352.
Their selfs, 352.
Them that, &c., 205.
Them self, 352.
Them selfs, 362.
Think, for expect,
271.
Thrall, thraldom, 108.
Threeness, 165.
Throwed, 104, 139,
207.
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
393
Ticket, for visiting-
card, 125, 126.
Tiff of punch, 257.
TiU, ellipsis of, 271, f.
Timid, 117.
Tim-whiskey, 257.
Tipple, der. of, 272.
Tipsy, der. of, 272.
To, old uses of, 258.
To, for compared with
363.
To, for on, 205.
To, for with, 271.
To, ellipsis of, 271.
To. misuses of ,85,200.
TooesBck, v. a., 110.
Tohbant, &c.. 111.
Tom-axe, 201.
Too, misuse of, 54.
Tootsy, sb., 273.
Totality, 286.
Tour, V. n., 301.
Tomist, 311.
Tout, V. n., 134, 287.
Touter. 134.
Toward, old use of,
259.
Toxophilite, 175.
Toxophilus, 176.
Tractarian, &c., 320.
Trait, 127.
Tramontane^ 259.
Transatlantic, 275.
Transverse, v. a., 259.
Treacle, 128, 161.
Tremenduous, 160.
Tribal, 134.
Tricksy, 272.
Trisyllable, adj., 227.
Tritical. 259.
Triumphant, for tri-
umphal, 167, 168.
Truant, 161.
Truepenny, 156.
Trustwortmess, 176.
Truthful, 287.
Tunic, 112.
Turbant,&c., 112,161
Turned of, old use of,
259.
Twaddle, for twad-
dler, 292.
Tyran, &c., 161.
Tyranness, 161, 259.
Tyrant, 161.
Ugglesorae, 173.
Ugsome, &c., 173.
Ultra^ sb., 163.
Ultraism, 311.
Unalienable, 259.
Unconversable, 110.
Uncreditable, 260.
Undeadly. 166. '
Under, old use of,
260.
Under way, 176.
Underganging, 166.
Underwent, have, 58.
Undiscovered, for un-
explored, 268.
Undisprivacied, 193,
195.
Uneath, 190.
Unexceptionable,&c.
misuse of, 201, 316.
Unexpressive, 173.
Unfillmglike, 166.
Unfullmaking, 166.
Ungain,adj., 203,260.
Unheal, 175.
Umdeal, misuse of,
198, 201.
Unmind, v. a., 176.
Unnoticed, 285.
Unpicturesque, 126.
Unpleasantry, 275.
Unrespectable, 288.
Unronmgness, 166.
Unshakened, 59, 361.
Unsuspectable, 167.
Untalented, 72.
Unthohnglike, 166.
Untuneable, for in-
harmonious, 260.
Unwell, 124,125,287.
Unwisdom, 314.
Unwittingness, 165.
Upon, old use of, 273.
Upset, sb., 275.
Use, SD., for interest,
260.
Usuring, 189.
Usury, 166.
Utiliser, v. a., 129.
Utilitarian, 316, 320.
Utilize, 128,129,167,
297.'
Vales, der. of, 162.
Valetudinary, adj.,
260.
Valetudo, 186.
Valuator, 173.
Vapour, V. a., 260.
Vapours, old use of,
260.
Vapulate, 367.
VeheteiiDarius, 187.
Velveret. 260.
Vernacular, adj., 117.
Vernacular, sb., 305.
Very pleased, &c.,
54, f.
Very shining, &c., 55.
Vet, 187.
Veto, sb., 310.
Vetoist, 311.
Viable, 181.
Viandry, for viands,
312.
Vicissitous, 315.
Vicissitudinary, &c.,
315.
Vindictive, 163.
Viparious, 101.
Visitant, 273.
Visto, 266.
Vitable, 181.
Vivable, 181.
Vociferate, 283.
Voice, for word, 367.
Volcano, nobiliary
pronunciation of,
319.
Vote one a bore, to,
283.
Vulgar, for vulgar
tongue, 305.
Vulgar, sb., misuse
of, 201.
Vulgarian, 312.
Vulnerate, 367.
Waff, 59.
Wafry, for wafers,
312.
Waft, 59.
Wafting, 119.
394
INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES.
Walking-stick, 348.
Wanehope, 165.
Warm, for affluent,
260, f.
Wart, for wast, 79.
Was, you, 208, 209.
Was a month, that
dav, 203, 261.
Wash- woman, 261.
Weary, v. n., 275,
301, f.
Weather-beatenest,
189
Wedbreak, 166.
Wend, 56, f.
Wended, 56, f .
Went, has, &c., 58,
360.
Wentedst, 361.
Were, for wast, 79,
362.
Werest,for wert, 361.
Werst, for wast, 79.
Wert, for wast, 77,
f., 361.
Wet finger, with a,
261.
What, superfluous,
25, 261, f.
Whereabouts, sb.,307
Which, old use of,
262.
WhUe, 62.
Whiles, 62.
Whimsey, 273.
Whisper a person,
to, 262.
Whittle, sb., 292.
Who. for which, 353.
Whole, for all, 205.
WhOly, 188.
Whom,f or which,353.
Whose, for of which,
34S.
Wight, 123.
Wise, to make, 255.
Wiseliest, 188.
Wish, V. n., old use
of, 262.
Wit-craft, 183.
With, old uses of, 263,
f.
With the widest, &c.,
264, f., 368.
With the worse, 265.
With, acquiescence,
258.
Withal, for with, 265.
Witherwin, 166.
Withinside, 265.
Without, for unless,
167.
Witword, 165.
Woe, adj., 265.
Woful-wan, 176.
Womanhood, 122.
Womanize, 40.
Wondered, it cannot
be, &c., 201, 265.
Wording, 123.
Worsen, v. a. and n.,
300, f .
Wristlet, 157.
Writ, for wrote, 139,
208.
Writ, for written, 139,
208.
Wrongoift, 155.
Wrote, for written,
104, 208.
Yeaminglike, 166.
Young person, for
young woman, 276.
Youris^ for yours,358.
Zealotism, 104.
Zed, 140.
Zedity, 140.
Zee for zed, 140.
Zenith, 120.
Zero, 311.
THE END.
JOHN GUILDS AND SON, FKINTERS.
WOEKS BY MR. HALL.
SANSKRIT.
The Atmabodha, with its Comlmentary, and the Tattvabodha. Pp.
29 and 9. Mirzapore: 1852.
The Sdnkbyapravachana, with its Commentary. Fp. 66, 233, and
44. Calcutta: 1856.
The Sdryasiddhduta, with its Commentary. Pp. 4, 388, and 13.
Calcutta: 1859.
The Vfisavadatta, with its Commentary. Pp. 66, 300, and 6.
Calcutta; 1859.
The Sankhyasdra. Pp. 51 and 48. Calcutta: 1862.
The Dasarupa, with its Commentary, and four chapters of the
NatyasAstra. Pp. 39 and 241. Calcutta: 1865.
HINDt.
The Tarkasangraha, translated into Hindi from the Sanskrit and
English. Pp. 24 and 48. Allahabad : 1850.
The Siddhantasangraha, translated into Hindi from the Sanskrit
and English. Pp. 7, 72, and 96. Agra: 1855.
Elements of Hindi and Braj Bhakhd Grammar, by Dr. J. K.
Ballantyne. New edition, with alterations and additions. Pp. 38.
London: 1868.
Hindi Reader. Pp. 19 and 184, quarto. Hertford : 1870.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Lectures on the Nydya Philosophy, Sanskrit and English. Revised
edition. Pp. 14 and 80. Benares : 1852.
The Rdjaniti, in the Braj Bhashd Language. Pp. 7, 167, 10, and
14. Allahabad: 1854.
Classical Selections. Pp. 2 and 256. Agra : 1855.
A Contribution towards an Index to the Bibliography of the Indian
Philosophical Systems. Pp. 2 and 236. Calcutta : 1 859.
A Rational Refutation of the Hindu Philosophical Systems, trans-
lated from the Hindi and Sanskrit. Pp. 10 and 284. Calcutta:
1862.
Ane Compendious and Breve Tractate, &c. By William Lauder
(1556). Pp. 11 and 39. London: 1864. Second edition, revised, pp.
11 and 43. London : 1869.
The RigvedasaAhita, Professor H. H. "Wilson's Translation, Vol.
1 ; Second Edition, with a new Index and a Postscript. Pp. 51 and
348. London: 1866.
Sir David Lyndesay's Works. Four Parts. Pp. 548. London :
1866—1869.
Benares, Ancient and Medieval : A Monograph. Pp. 23. Hert-
ford: 1868.
The Yishnupur&na, Annotated Edition of Professor H. H. Wilson's
Translation. Five Volumes. Pp. 140 and 200 ; 343 ; 343 ; 347 ;
392. London : 1864—1870.
OPIXIOXS OF THE PRESS ON MR. HALL'S ' RECENT
EXEMPLIFICATIONS OF FALSE PHILOLOGY'.
From * The New-York Daily Tribune.^
" If such a work as * Recent Exemplifications of False Philo-
logy* were sold for a sixpence, or even circulated gratuitously, it
would, probably, discredit its writer quite as much as it would
discredit Mr. White. Being * held * or sold at a prohibitory price,
it will, probably,
* Die among its worshippers ',
supposing that that word can truly be put in the plural."
From * The Independent,^
" If a book deserves to be widely read, because it is almost the
worst that can be written on a special subject, — on the principle
which induced the Spartans to make Helots drunk before the
children, as a frightful example, we ought cordially to recommend
Mr. Eitzedward Hall*s Recent Exemplifications of Fals Fhilology,
[This highly religious paper, as if the author's alleged sins were
not grievous enough, here forges a little bad spelling for him.] The
pamphlet is altogether a remarkable example of literary ferocity ;
and its chief purpose is to fall foul on Mr. Grant White, in which
it succeeds admirably. But, though Mr. White is the chief
enemy, the writer attacks, with impartial virulence, pretty nearly
everybody who has said a word about the English language for
the last fifty years. Landor, De Quincey, Wordsworth, Cole-
ridge, and men of less name are, all, assailed before us with hands-
ful of indiscriminated mud. And. when we have finished reading
the book, we have a general impression left on our mind, that
Mr. Hall wishes it to be understood, that all philologists are mad,
and that he is their keeper.
" There is quite enough slang and vilification to be found in
newspapers at present ; so we shall not cull any of Mr. Hall's
hot-house flowers of rhetoric. But there is a useful word to be
said about this gentleman's general drift. All the persons whom
he assails have criticized current English speech, spoken and writ-
ten, with a view to its purification by a standard of culture.
That undertaking may be difficult ; perhaps it is impossible ; few
would be found to say that it is not laudable or desirable. A
man must be sunk very low, before he contentedly resigns the
prospect of improvement of his language, whether he be French-
man, German, Englishman, or Cherokee, when the possibility
of the improvement is pointed out. Mr. Hall has fallen quite
below the point, and revels In his fall, and declaims against
everybody who, on grounds of good taste or public necessity,
desires to keep the English language within some limits of
scholarship and artistic feeling. Of English books of all cen-
turies he seems to have read a quantity incompatible with sanity ;
and it is quite sufficient, that a word is found in any of them,
for him to attack anybody who objects to its use now in a new or
an old sense. His notion of a language evidently is * all the
words used at all times in all printed books.* The office of
literature in castigating language is quite unknown to him. His
notion seems to be, that everybody should say what he likes, and
write what he likes, and so language will grow healthily. Never
mind what happens to words, in the process. Suppose people do
say now, for example, in England, * awfully jolly.* Why, all the
harm that can come will be, that, in a century, * awful' will mean
'jolly,' and * jolly ' will mean * awful.* And how good it will be for
trade ; for, of course, all the Bibles and hymn-books will have to
be re-edited ! Such writers as Mr. Hall can do no good, and
they may do harm, by preventing serious study of a most serious
subject among the unreflecting. As may be expected, Mr. Hall
gives ample evidence of his being no philologer himself. He
seems to know little German, and makes a great fuss about quite
commonplace Greek etymology. We observe, on the last page
of the volume, a list of his printed works, and mention of one
in preparation, with the title * Modern English,' concerning which
last we can only repeat, with much feeling, what Cowper says of
the illustrious John Gilpin's performance on horseback :
< And when he next doth ride abroad,
May we be there to see.*
We should add, however, that this little book contains a good deal
of information for the curious, and will often interest where it
does not edify."
From * The Golden Age:
" There are some good books of a bad kind ; and there are many
bad books of a good kind ; but this book is the worst that we
have ever seen of a very bad kind. . . Dr. Hall is full of learned
pretence, both as to matter and manner, and crowds his pages
with quotations, the most of which are entirely without interest
and of no use whatever, except to bear witness to Dr. Hall's ac-
quaintance with literature. Indeed, his quotations, and the
notes that infest his pages, make his book one of the most for-
bidding we have ever taken in hand. . . . Mr. Hall — we beg par-
don, Dr. Hall, (for, knowing something of the value and signifi-
cance of an Honorary D.C.L. of Oxford, we are not so deeply
impressed by it as this possessor of it evidently expected us to be)
— well, then, Dr. Hall sets out, as he declares, to subject Mr.
Grant White to a strict appreciation, *that it may operate as a
salutary warning.' The insolence of such a declaration is in-
superable, and no less ridiculous ; but, as to Hall's right to submit
Mr. White, or any one else who has published a book, to a strict
appreciation, there can be no doubt. By so doing he might have
conferred a benefit upon the public, and upon Mr. White ; and he
might have done it in a scholarly spirit, and with the manner of
a gentleman. On the contrary, he has done it like a braggart, a
bully, and a blackguard. . . As to particular points, Dr. Hall may
be sometimes right, and Mr. White wrong ; but we see no
reason to change our original opinion as to the value, the interest,
and the needfulness of Mr. White's book. And as to Dr. Hall's
we have been chiefly concerned with it as an exhibition of arro-
gance, of pompous pretence, and of literary brutality."
From * The Boston Advertiser*
"Mr. Richard Grant White's book on * Words and Their
Uses ' bids fair to be preeminently useful in settling what is
good usage of the English language, but not exactly in the way
he intended. The attention he succeeded in arousing, coupled
with his errors, not to say ignorance, has. provoked to enter the
field of debate many champions of the mother-tongue. Professor
Lounsbury, of Yale College, in the columns of *The College
Courant,' made it evident that Mr. White's dicta were not in-
fallible ; but Fitzedward Hall, formerly Professor of the San-
skrit Language and Literature in King's College, London, has,
even more completely than Professor Lounsbury, exposed his
shortcomings. In a little work entitled * Recent Exemplifications
of False Philology,' Mr. White is handled in a way which it
would be kindness to call merely severe. In many particulars,
and these essentially exemplary ones, Mr. White, as an authority,
is annihilated."
From « The New-York MaiV
** Scholars who know our language nearly and familiarly, who •
have traced it to its sources, who have followed it through its
unfoldings, who have watched it varying with the varying
seasons of thought and changing hue and texture, with the
changing hopes and sensations of the centuries, — such only can
understand and honour sufficiently its wealth and majesty, great
and venerable. Fitzedward Hall, formerly Professor of Sanskrit
in King's College, Loudon, ... a profound philologist, versed in
many languages, knows the self-sustaining strength, and the en-
during and fruitful riches of the English tongue, and bears for it
a love alike patriotic and scholarlike. Therefore is his indigna-
tion hot against those whom he believes to be smatterers and
triflers, much puffed-up, as word-censors, with the self-confidence
which comes from half-knowledge This little book de-
serves notice otherwise, as a veritable curiosity of literature.
In its hundred and fourteen pages, are direct references to, or
citations of, over three hundred authors, — an evidence of faith-
ful work which deserves all praise."
From * The New-York Times?
" It is especially in regard to their knowledge of the actual
history of English words, that Prof. Hall scourges the deficiencies
of the men whom he reviews. And he does it, certainly, from a
height to which hardly another English student of the present
day has ascended. His reading has been immense, his observa-
tion keen, his annotation most industrious. . . . But we have
too high an opinion of Mr. Hall, and have enjoyed his little book
too much, k) want to close our notice with an unfavourable
judgment upon a point of minor consequence. We will add,
rather, that, in his argument about telegraph and telegram, he
shows himself able to argue questions of classical as well as of
English propriety ; we heartily concur, moreover, in his conclu-
sion, that telegram has, in its general acceptance and use, the only
support that it needs, in order to hold up its head in good Eng-
lish society Mr. Hall has doubled the value of his book
by providing it with ample indexes of authors quoted and of
words treated. Its character justifies us in forming very high
expectations of the work on ' Modern English,* by which he pro-
mises that it shall be followed."
Irom * The Nation*
" Mr. Hall passes unnoticed, or with only a word or two of
condemnation, some of those who have most moved our ire, as
Alford and his antaj^nist Moon, Blackley, and Gould. He expends
a few trenchant introductory pages on Landor and Coleridge, De
Quincey and the London Athenmum. But his chief exemplar of
false philology is Mr. Richard Grant White, as exhibiting himself
in the volume, more than once mentioned of late in these pages,
entitled * Words and Their Uses.' The second and revised edition
of this work had not yet made its appearance, when Mr. Hall un-
dertook to expose its weaknesses ; but the exposure will apply very
nearly or quite as well to the new as the old form of it ; for we
have not observed that the alterations recently made affect any of
the points criticized. More than one additional revision may be
made, we think, still leaving aplenty of matter for adverse criticism.
Mr. White's dogmas and semblances of arguments have met with
many severe answers, and from diverse points of view ; his phi-
lological knowledge, as to the history of English words and forms,
has been made the chief subject of one formidable attack ; his ideas
of general grammar, of another ; his command of English author-
ities, and the soundness and good taste of his decisions on dis-
puted points of usage, of yet others ; and it is in this last direc-
tion that Dr. HalPs criticisms expend themselves. They are,
throughout, pungent and able ; and they are founded on a wide
acquaintance with English literature, a philological cultivation, and
an acuteuess and penetration, to which his antagonist can make
no pretence. . . . Without claiming the title, or putting forward
any pretensions, either to * scholarship ' or to absolute * reason *
and infallible ^ taste,' Dr. Hall is really a scholar, and a profound
one, known, as such, in three continents ; for his contributions to
Sanskrit and other Oriental learning have been a credit both to
America, the land of his birth, and England, the country of his
adoption, in India, the scene of the larger share o*f his life's
labour. Not deeming Mr. White a foeman altogether worthy of
his steel, we welcome his present production especially as an
earnest of the greater work on * Modern English,' which he an-
nounces as in preparation, and which we hope to receive from
him within no long time, sure that it will be a valuable contribu-
tion to the knowledge of our native tongue."
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